Having the trend of low rider pants is fine, but it does start to pose a problem in the back. How do you close that gap down that loves to show off your panties or unmentionables?
Learn a quick trick to adding a hidden elastic in the waist- just on the back side- to pull it all in and close the peep show! NO more bum crack! Easy to do.
Tired of dealing with pants that gape at the back, exposing more than you’d like? We’ve got a simple solution to fix this common problem with minimal effort and supplies.
By adding a hidden elastic band to the waistband, you can close that gap and keep everything comfortably in place.
This quick and easy tutorial shows you how to make small vertical cuts on each side of the waistband, insert the elastic, and secure it for a perfect fit.
How to fix pants with a gap in the back
You don’t need fancy supplies—just some elastic, a sewing machine, and sharp scissors.
This method works for anyone struggling with ill-fitting pants, from kids to adults, and is especially handy for those with curvier shapes. Say goodbye to uncomfortable waistbands and hello to perfectly fitting pants!
Materials Needed:
- 1 pair of pants that just don’t fit, show off your bums, or are sticking 2″ off of your back.
*If there are any labels sewn to the waist that would block the elastic i just snip the stitching and take those off.
- 1″ elastic band 16″ long (you will be cutting this to size later)
- Super Sharp Scissors
- Buttons (optional)
How to add elastic to your pants
You will be making slits on EACH SIDE of the waist for the elastic.
Holding the waist with both hands at the sides, pull apart the band. Snip the inside of the waist —DON’T cut through to the other side!!! ONLY cut the inside. Make a VERTICLE cut 1 1/4″ long.
Repeat this for the left and right sides of the waist.
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Measure the area between the cut slits. Then subtract 2″ from that number. CUT the elastic to this measurement.
You have a choice to make—-do you want to put a button on so it will adjust or no button?
If you are doing a button continue on. If you are not skip this step.
Adjustable elastic with button (optional)
Make button holes at ONE end of the elastic. I do 2 or 3. After stitching them snip the inside so the button can go through it.
Sew a button to 1″ past the slit on ONE side. Make sure this is larger than the button holes as the elastic stretches just a bit.
Fold over the edge with button holes and put a large safety pin through it. Thread this through the slit on the opposite side of the button. STOP when the end is just poking out of the slit.
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Use a zigzag stitch and stitch this down. Go over it at least twice to make sure it won’t ever move. Use a darker thread or coordinating one. You may also pull the elastic inside and stitch it down so it is invisible.
Keep feeding the elastic until it comes out the other side. Give it a good pull. Remove the safety pin, making sure you don’t let the elastic jump back into the hole. Button the elastic to the pants.
*If you didn’t make the elastic adjustable with the button holes then you need to sew it in place. You might want the wearer try it on to determine the best location.
You can leave the elastic a little long and snip the stitches to adjust it later if needed.
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This is what they should look like when the elastic is evenly stretched out. If you would like to keep the elastic from twisting you can sew a line down the center in the back.
How to add elastic to your waistband video tutorial
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Becky Jorgensen is the creative quilter behind Patchwork Posse, the Patchwork Planner and her online quilt group Patchworkers Plus. You can find her patterns in books, magazines, and her quilt membership. Gather your quilting supplies, organize your sewing space, explore the process of disappearing quilt blocks, or finish a free quilt pattern. I'll help you use what you have, finish what you start and make your quilting journey fun!
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Okay, so I’m just going to Old Navy or the Gap–I am way to LAZY!!! Those pants do work though. Have a good one.
GREAT idea!!!
I have a skinny minnie who’s in desperate need of this tutorial! I try to buy her only adjustable waist pants but some are just too cute to pass up, know I can fix them myself. Thanks!
I was just talking about doing this today at The Knitting Coven!! It’s a great idea, though I like to button hole stitch around the 2 openings to stop fraying!! Nice modelling!!!
Yippee! This is just what I need. Thank you!
Very cool idea. I have a half a dozen “brothers” who are going to find their pants very much altered next weekend when I go to visit them.
Now… the next step, what do you have to solve the underware baring baggy pant issue?
This is the best, most practical tutorial I have ever seen. Thank you thank you thank you for the inspired idea!!!
Best. Tutorial. Ever!
Thank you for sharing. I have 3 boys and although we do try and buy the pants with the adjustable waist band, sometimes they are just not available. This is a great way to fix that!!!!
Love this–I seriously have the gapping problem and thought I would never again find pants that fit! Thanks!
YOU ARE Brilliant!!! Thanks! I get hand me downs and such that do not have the adj. waist and I have tall slim kids. I LOVE THIS!
Oh, my goodness, this has to be the best and most-needed tutorial yet. I consider it a personal mission to lecture all those young ladies who have hiney exposure! My daughter is quite mortified with me, but I am compelled to explain the importance of nice-fitting pants to all. I will have to make copies of this tutorial and carry them with me for visuals on proper pant wearing! — Michele
Wow! Simple and usefull! Love this, thanks!
Greetings from germany,
Tanja
🙂
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
Thanks for sharing.
Just brilliant! Thank you for sharing.
I could see this working great on my toddlers pants, too! Thanks for sharing.
Great idea and I LOVED your title. 🙂
I want to post about your tutorial on my blog. Can I use your panty-exposing picture? — Michele
I don’t see your e-mail, so I have to contact you here again. Come over to my place and see my posting. Thanks for letting me put up your photos.– Michele
I had to do this exact thing for my daughter. I just bought buttonhole elastic and eliminated having to make the buttonhole myself. Laziness. Thanks for the tute!
Oh, this is fabulous! Thanks so much for sharing it. I know what I’m going to be doing this week!
You are awesome!! I have a stack of pants that I’ve been planning to adjust. And you’ve gone and done all the thinking for me!
What a great tutorial. My daughter and I both need this so badly. I was just today thinking of putting darts in her jeans but this idea is so much better. Thanks
No more builders crack, slot machine, eftpos… hehehe i sooooo needed this, what a fantastic idea, so simple!
Thank you! After years of living with gapitis or passing up otherwise great pants, I have a solution. Why didn’t I think of this? I’m so glad you did. I just tried it on a my favorite jeans and have been dancing around the house. Go hips, go!
Brilliant!! There's nothing I hate more than a gaping waistband!
I scheduled a post on Craft Gossip about your tutorial, scheduled to go live tomorrow: http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-fix-a-ga…
That is great, especially for those of us with rounder booties! This happens to me all the time. Thanks for the tutorial
Fantastic solution! Many thanks!
Genious!
Thanks for sharing;}
it is a smart way to fix something sooo obnoxious!
thanks for stopping by! give it a try…it totally works too!
darn those round booties!! 🙂
it is a smart way to fix something sooo obnoxious!
thanks for stopping by! give it a try…it totally works too!
darn those round booties!! 🙂
Becky – I can not say thank you enough for this fantastic tutorial. I am curvy and have never had a pair of jeans fit just right. I’ve had it bookmarked for a while and finally got around to giving it a try. Amazing! You are brilliant!
I am so glad it works for you. nothing is more frustrating then having nothing that will work! glad that we are crafty woman who can figure things out for ourselves when the big stores can’t. enjoy.
I LOVE this idea – thank you (I have been making do with an elastic belt and I KNOW this would feel way more comfy and not slip the way the belt often does – also adore the adjustable button hole idea – plan to use the elastic they sell for maternity wear in case I fill out *grin*)
Great pictures too – detailed and helpful.
M.L.
Thank you *SO* much for posting this. I bought new jeans today that fit everywhere except the waist… and now they fit there too! This is now the best fitting pair of jeans that I have worn in over 20 years. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I am going to the store right away and buying buttonhole elastic so I can do this with some of mine and my daughter’s pants!
yay! you go girl!
I ALWAYS have this problem! Thanks for a practical solution that’s easy to do!!!
Sometimes I wonder why I never thought of that! Thanks so much. I have always had a gap problem because I have a waist and then i have a bum, so always a gap no matter the make of jean. NOW! yay!
To sweet Julie (1st comment) who said,”Okay, so I’m just going to Old Navy or the Gap–I am way too LAZY!”… well, God love her… she must have an incredible bod that fits into pants from Old Navy and The Gap. I bought some denim shorts today thinking: I am SO glad I pinned that tutorial about how to fix that gap in the back of pants. Yep, round booty, huge legs, small waist, BIG gap at the waist. Now I can actually buy pants off the rack and in an hour (or less) alter all that I bought at one time! Thank you SO much!
that’s funny. i think it plagues us all! hope it works for you!
yay sarah! glad you found a solution. works great. 🙂
Okay — finally about to try. Do you hand stitch every thing? Button in, and your elastic down? That’s a LOT of hand stitching through denim (OUCH)… but I’m not sure my machine will go through the waist band of jeans. Hmmm. Okay… so maybe 2 hours.
i used my machine. so much easier! that would take a lot of time and it would kill your fingers!
THANK YOU! I can’t tell you how many pants I’ve ruined by trying to alter them without knowing what the heck I was doing. I’m off to try you technique now! 🙂
you betcha allison! i still use this method and it is super easy to adjust when another child jumps into that size. Good luck!
If you are going to use a sewing machine, just open up the stitching where the waistband is sewn down, then thread the elastic through with a large safety pin. Pin the elastic down with a straight pin and stitch it in place. Pull elastic to the other side, pin it in place, try on pants to fit, adjust elastic as needed, sew in place and stitch up the places in waistband opened to allow the elastic through. I wouldn’t recommend cutting the fabric as in time, it can ravel out and you have lost a good pair of pants!
Thank you so much, I love my daughters pant that have this going on as she is tall and thin and so many of her pants just fall off if the company hasn’t done this, but I never thought of doing this myself. I have a lot of pants to fix now (both my daughters and my own). Thank you again, keeping a belt on a 3 yr old just hasn’t been working.
so much easier to put the belt in the waist band! lol good luck with all the adjustments. fun stuff!
great idea to do it in the seam! plus that would equal out the waddidge of the waistband too. the hole does ravel a bit, but because it is in the inside it isn’t too big of an issue.
Thank you so much for this tutorial! I know it was published a few years ago but I just found it via Pinterest. At 29, I had all but given up wearing jeans because of this. I never even thought of doing this – can’t wait to try!
Isn’t this the greatest??!!! I have been doing this since the kids adjustable waist pants came out like 10 years ago. My kids are really thin & for a long time pants didn’t come in a slim version. The adjustable waist ones are not always in the styles we like or are marked up past what is really reasonable. So I have been making our own.
i totally still do this! it comes in sooo handy.
I will be doing this
I can’t believe I never thought to do this myself! I love adjustable waistbands in kids pants–I never thought to put them in the ones that don’t have that! And for my own pants?? genius.
Thanks for putting this up! (found you via Pinterest!)
thanks katie– i love that it is for everyone! works every time too. 🙂
Thanks for this great suggestion. Now my comfy jeans will be even more comfy since I won’t have to wear a belt with them! 🙂
Great idea. I had the same problem with my girls when they were growing up. I use to make darts in between the belt loops in the back (two). I had them try on the pants inside out and pin them so I knew how much to take in. If their were no belt loops I just made two on the back. They looked really professional and they fit perfect. Love your idea too!
adding darts is what i started off with, but the bulk would give them creases on their little bums. this method worked a little better because the gather is spread over the whole back and not concentrated in one spot.
I have a hard to fit body (5 ft 8in 118 lbs) so I constantly have this gap! I am so trying this!!
yay elora! you totally should! good luck-
Thanks a lot for this tutorial, I`ve just tried it, and worked!
edilaine– i love that it worked for you! thanks for letting me know! congrats too!
i need to do this to all of my lil sisters pants.
I don’t understand where you make the button hole in the pants to connect the button on the elastic. I hope you can clear this up for me. Thank you.
the button hole is on the elastic. the button is just outside of the channel that the elastic is in. hope that clears it up. 🙂
Thank you so very much! I haven’t had a pair of pants fit in so long! This is the BEST!
amy- you are so welcome. hope it works for you!
Thank you so much for this. I have 4 small kids and sit on the floor alot. I just feel like I am pulling my shirt down constantly to hide the gap. I am going to do this today! Now if I can just get my friends to let me do it for their jeans. LOL
you go karen! go fix all the pants! I totally understand. 🙂
This is absolutely brilliant. I am immediately going to go do this to all my jeans. Thanks for sharing. xx
This is so great! My daughters and I all have waists smaller than our bums so every pair of pants gap in the back. Unfortunately, I don’t sew. 🙁
Haha…great idea!! 🙂
Thanks for joining the Link Up!
Thank you! I finally did this with a pair of my shorts today. Worked great! 🙂
Yay heather! Thanks for stopping back by and letting me know.
I have battled with the gap in the waistband of jeans all my life!! Thank you so so so much!! This worked perfectly.
so glad to hear! I love this and still use it too.
If you buy buttonhole elastic……makes it a lot easier!
My 4 year old granddaughter is always being told “Say no to crack” because her butt crack is always showing. NOw we can retire that old and tired saying and stop wasting time pulling her pants up a million times a day! THANK YOU for the amazing tutorial!
i have done this with my jeans as they dip forward and r quite uncomfortable
As I’ve grown older, I’ve also grown brader in the beam… so I buy my hip size but the waist is too loose. I’ve tried this sollutioon, been doing it for years, but I rarely buy elastic, I save the waistband from my husband’s underwear! works a treat! Thanks for sharing a simple yet effective solultion to saggy waistlines.