hubby is losing it

Hubby is losing it!  His dress clothes are waaayyy too big.  He hasn't really wore his dress clothes since he was he was laid-off four years ago.  I knew his dress clothes were getting loose, but oh-my!  He has to hang on to them to keep them up!  LOL

He had an interview and since we are flat broke, I sat aside my quilt and went to work.  I have two pair of pants remodel.  The great part is he signed the contract this morning!  Yeah!  So I have to get with it and finish up the rest of his dress pants.  

I'm going to let his dress shirts go until after his pants are done.    I'm not real sure I want to tackle his suit jacket.  (I done it before.  I made his three-piece suit for our wedding.)  Maybe, after he has worked a couple of months we can go shopping for a new suit jacket and donate his older one.

For those who have never tailored a pair of men's pants here is how I do it.  First thing I do is have whomever try on the garment and kind of look over where the problems are.  The next thing I do is get my handy-dandy seam ripper and CAREFULLY remove most of the waistband.  I leave the very front attached.  I don't want to mess with the zipper if at all possible.

Have them put the garment back on and start pinning out the excess fabric making sure back pockets and such stay in the right spots on the body.  There are two ways to do this.  One is wrong side out, which is easier.  However, the correct way is right side out, as they would wear the garment.  This takes into account the fact that no body is symmetrical.

Have them take the garment off.  Get a note pad and start measuring what you pinned out and where; then writing it all down.  If you don't have to take out more than an inch out of a seam you won't need to use your seam ripper to remove seams.  However, if you need to take up side seams you are going to have to move pockets.  So get your seam ripper out and CAREFULLY start ripping the seams out.  Make notes as to where all the bar-tacks are; any top stitching you take out.  Pay careful attention to how the garment was sewn together and how the pockets were built.  You will not be able to move the back pockets if they are plackets but most front pockets can be.

One other thought, leave any belts loops attached to the body of the pants if you can, because they won't move more than an inch ether way when you get ready to reattach everything.  I know weird!  You take out nine inches in the waist and the belt loops don't move that much.

 These are his pants ripped apart; the seams and pockets pressed flat with the notes.  I pinned the front side seams together and the back side seams together so I could mark and cut the sides the same.  I did not rip the inseams out or the back center seam.

 I got my tape measure out and marked where I need to cut based on my notes.  I then moved the pins just inside my cutting line and cut.  I was feeling quite brave and did not do the prudent thing on this pair.  Which is to baste up the seams and have him try the pants on, one more time.  It may come back to haunt me when he tries them on and they are too tight!
 

You can see where I fiddled around with the lines trying to get a smooth transition from one angle to another.  You can also see where I moved the marks for the pockets to the new cutting line.  The pockets in these pants were easy to move because they were side seam pockets.  I used a pleat to take out the extra fabric in the front of the pants as that is the style of pants Hubby finds most comfortable.  One pleat goes on the fold line up the front of the pants.  The two-pleat style goes either side of the fold line.

Put the pockets back on with any top-stitching and bar-tacking required.  Do the center back seam with any top-stitching needed.  Sew up side seams and any seam finishing.  Add any top-stitching required to the side seams.  Pin the waistband from the front to center back.  Pin where you need to take out the excess with a seam.  Trim the excess out and sew the waistband on.  Reattach the belt loops and you are done.

The other way to get rid of the excess fabric in the waistband is to take off whichever end of the waistband would be the easiest to rebuild.  If you have a riveted button you would take off the buttonhole end and make a new buttonhole.  On these pants if I were to do it this way I would have taken off the button end.  Trimmed the excess off and reattached the button.  The reason I don't do it the 'correct' way is the zipper and the buttonhole!  It can be a total nightmare!  The other way is easier for me.  And if they  wear a belt, who's to know?

Hey, everybody have a good day!

Judy

Update: The post on how to move the front pockets is here, if you need it.