Lobolita

I only fit into one of my pairs of pants. Okay, that’s not true. I have a pair of white maternity jeans that I’m scared to wear, and a pair of gray maternity dress pants that I wear all the time instead. But a girl’s gotta have some good old blue jeans here in Washington, where seasons like “summer” and “fall” appear and disappear on a daily basis, rather than properly taking turns. Enter the sewing machine.

How to make a pair of regular jeans into maternity jeans

Materials:
Old jeans that fit everything except your belly
1.5 yards 2″ elastic
1/4 yard heavy t-shirt knit fabric.
Matching thread

1. Put on a pair of old jeans and laugh when you try to zip them up. Mark the spot where they stop fitting you, take them off, and cut the the front out of them like so:

2. Pin and sew the pocket tops in place so they don’t migrate during this process.

3. Wrap the 2″ elastic around yourself to determine the correct length. You want it to be snug enough to hold up a pair of jeans. Alternatively, you could measure the waistband on a preexisting pair of maternity pants that fit you well and use that measurement. Leave 1/2″ extra for seam allowance, and cut the elastic. Overlap the ends and sew. I put two lines of stitching down the overlapping portion and zigzagged down the raw edges on either side.

4. Cut your knit fabric so that it is 8″ wide and as long as your elastic band, with 5/8″ seam allowance on each side. Sew up the open side.

5. Place your fabric band inside your elastic band and fold the fabric over so that the long edges meet.

6. Zigzag 1/4″ in from the folded edge of the fabric, then below the elastic band.

7. With right sides together, pin the waistband into the jeans, pinning only ONE SIDE of the waistband fabric to the denim. The other side will fold over the inside to cover the raw cut edge at the end. Make sure to catch all the pocket edges as you pin.In this picture you can see that the upper edge of the waistband is rolled out of the way as I pin.

8. Sew the waistband to the jeans, using a 1/2″ seam allowance. If necessary, stretch the waistband slightly to accommodate the width of the denim. Turn the waistband right side up, and pin the free flap of the waisband to the inside of the jeans to hide the raw edge of the denim. Since my fabric didn’t ravel, I didn’t bother folding it under, but you may want to.

9. Turn the waisband back to the right side and topstitch 1/4″ in from the seamline, going through all the layers. This will secure the lining in place on the back and provide an attractive finish on the right side.

10. Finally, trim the excess lining fabric on the inside of the jeans.

And that’s it! It took me about an hour, start to finish, and I ended up with another pair of wearable pants!