What's the best way to get an eleastic waistband the right size?
 

I'm making a pair of shorts for someone far away and I was wondering how I
should measure the elastic for the waistband to make them fit just right?
If the person has a size 32" waist, should the elastic be just a bit smaller
than that or do you measure exactly the right size? Or allow a bit extra?
Advice, please.

Giselle (could never get this right on myself so heaven knows how I'm going
to manage it for someone not here)

Volfie wrote:

I'm making a pair of shorts for someone far away and I was wondering how I
should measure the elastic for the waistband to make them fit just right?
If the person has a size 32" waist, should the elastic be just a bit smaller
than that or do you measure exactly the right size? Or allow a bit extra?
Advice, please.

Giselle (could never get this right on myself so heaven knows how I'm going
to manage it for someone not here)


Best way is to hunt out some buttonhole elastic and make it adjustable.
Otherwise, just leave the elastic unfinished so they can do that last bit?

--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Dear Volfie,

For yourself, put the intended elastic around your waist (or where you
want it to fit). Hold it at that point, then pull it down over your
hips, to make sure that you can easily get it over your hips. Add 1/2
inch, overlap after threading it through the garment, and sew on both
sides of the overlap.

For the person far away, just cut a generous piece of elastic, thread
it through the shorts, and safety-pin the ends together. Give
instructions to the recipient as to how to finish it after the length
has been adjusted.

Teri

"Kate Dicey" wrote
Best way is to hunt out some buttonhole elastic and make it adjustable.

I never heard of that. I'll have to look for it.

Otherwise, just leave the elastic unfinished so they can do that last
bit?

It's a guy. It'll never happen.

Giselle

Volfie wrote:
"Kate Dicey" wrote
Best way is to hunt out some buttonhole elastic and make it
adjustable.

I never heard of that. I'll have to look for it.

http://www.thesewingplace.com/index....ROD&ProdID=998

Great stuff! NAYY,

--
Beverly
delete no spam and .invalid to reply

Volfie wrote:

It's a guy. It'll never happen.

Then you could use the buttonhole elastic, or he can just leave it
pinned. :)

I have been making pants for sometime now and find that the elastic needs to
be cut smaller than the waist size because it stretches out when sewn. I
usually cut the elastic at least 2 inches smaller and sometimes more. For a
large waist size I sometimes cut the elastic up to 4 inches smaller.



"Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply" wrote in
message ...
Volfie wrote:

It's a guy. It'll never happen.

Then you could use the buttonhole elastic, or he can just leave it pinned.
:)

On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 15:19:07 -0500, "Volfie"
wrote:

It's a guy. It'll never happen.

So he can leave the safety pin in the elastic.
My mother wore safety-pinned garters for decades.
(I always sew mine -- but I don't have four kids,
a garden, and a henhouse.)

She used the very smallest safety pins, so as not to make
lumps. She also used quarter-inch elastic (which I also
find adequate for everything but my pull-on bras) -- the
kind of elastic you put into men's shorts would probably
require two or three little safety pins.

Joy Beeson
--
http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ -- needlework
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbeeson59...HSEW/ROUGH.HTM
http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ -- Writers' Exchange
joy beeson at earthlink dot net

back in the twenties and thirties this was such a common practice that the
tiny pins were marked under the name "beauty pins", and were usually brass
or gold colored, so they were fancier than the usual safety pin.

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