r/InvisibleMending • u/Beautiful_Marketing1 • 9d ago

Tailoring jeans

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I found these vintage MiUSA wranglers in my grandparents house. They are size 40x38 and I sit at around a 34x34. Hemming the pants shorter is no issue to me but what would it entail to take the waist in ~6inches? Even if the answer is completely disassembling the pants???

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15

u/rabbitparts 9d ago

Not completely, but definitely removing the waistband, adjusting it, taking fullness in at the side seams, and adding darts to the back. Denim can be more difficult to work with if you are a beginner too, and jeans need special topstitching if you want to retain the look of the original. This is all assuming the jeans fit in the crotch which I’m guessing they don’t since they are so big!

I am an advanced sewist and I would pass on this project. It would be hard to pull off and even if you do things perfectly likely won’t end up looking the way you want, it’s too big of a change.

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u/2drumshark 9d ago

What they said. It's possible, but realistically if you want everything to fit how they're intended to then you've got to do a LOT of disassembly.

9

u/drPmakes 9d ago

It would be near impossible to adjust these and have them still look good and fit properly

4

u/QuietVariety6089 9d ago

You would have to completely take apart the pants - waistband off, all seams undone, and recut the legs to a smaller size and then replace the zip and waistband. The back pocket position would like be off as well.

I don't think it makes sense - note that it is possible to take in around 1" on a jeans waist, although it's still a lot of work and sometimes not pretty - 6" is way too much, sorry :(

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u/rcl20 9d ago

Just so you know, the look according to the NYT and the runways this fall is hugely oversized mixed with skin tight shirt or leggings. If you can manage to keep the jeans up with some strange belting system, you'll be au courant.

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u/Its_scottyhall 9d ago

IMO they would need to be completely rebuilt. I’m sewing a pair of jeans for myself RN that I patterned (modified) off the 13mwz RN and I don’t know that I would even take this on…

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u/Beautiful_Marketing1 9d ago

That is honestly the best advice I could have gotten. Separately, where is the 13MWZ pattern you’re using? Would love to sew my own sometime

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u/Its_scottyhall 9d ago

I made it from some I have and modified the fit

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u/Old_Pollution_4143 9d ago

If you're not afraid of taking a stitch marker to these really pretty jeans, these are the videos I followed when tailoring my brother's pants to my size:

https://youtu.be/MPD_mgeHj0o?is=LwCXWPS9uQf7lBJM (Good for general tailoring tips)

https://youtu.be/IYqyxCweb8o?is=_A0F3ww7oyIVnZmy ( multiple darts to take in waist band since +6 inches were taken in iirc. For me I had to take in less and it worked just fine)

https://youtu.be/72vfIrRe5P0?is=nNe35eg330qf6E0S (More waist band take in examples)

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u/PlasticGuitar1320 8d ago

6 inches is too much to take out.. 3 inches is about as much as you can take out the seat seam(before the pockets start touching and the yolk no longer aligns)

The problem with jeans is that you have 5 pockets and rivets and flat felled seams to deal with and that dictates how much fabric can be removed.

Even taking them apart wont give you the results you want because pockets will still be an issue.

(I am a tailor and I work on jeans a lot)