Bingo! You have a great pair of trousers or skirt, but the garment turns out to be too big. Ai, what a shame, because it really is a gem. Now what? ! Our do-it-yourself expert Melanie shares how to do the most common minor clothing repairs yourself from now on. This time, she explains how to take in oversized trousers with figure seams.
Minor clothing repairs: figure seams
Repairing your own clothes is not only better for the planet, it also makes you a richer person yourself. You save a beloved item of clothing - because why did it break? It must have come óbecause you loved wearing it so much and you literally save yourself money, because that trip to the shop or tailor is no longer necessary. You fix it yourself for another round of wearing pleasure. So put on a nice podcast or playlist (tips for this we also have) and get to work on small repair jobs. This time we will work on figure seams. Using this technique, you can, among other things, shrink trousers that are too big. Anyone can do it!
Sin! Far too many broken clothes in the wardrobe
A survey by UK textile organisation WRAP has found that 30% of people have garments hanging in their wardrobes that they no longer wear, simply because they need repair. Bummer! In France, the government is going to help people. Here, you get (up to) 25 euros discount on repairs (and pay an extra tax for a fast fashion purchase) in the hope that it will encourage people to repair clothes more often. In the Netherlands, we have to make do with initiatives such as United Repair Center, mended.eu (send in your repairs and get it returned fixed) or the local tailor - which we absolutely welcome, but more is always better.
Source: wrap.org.uk & change.inc & volkskrant.nl
In the left and right photos, you can see the ladder stitch from the outside. In the middle photo from the inside.
Fitting oversized trousers with darts
Tools
- needle
- iron thread*
- scissors
- ruler
- pencil or erasable pen
Instructions
- Measure how much you want to taper the trousers and mark this distance with chalk or an erasable pen on the inside of the trousers where you want to place the figure seam.
- Draw a figure seam by drawing a triangle using the marks you made.
- Now sew the figure seam using ladder stitch. Following the drawn lines, start at the top at the widest point and work towards the tip, pull on and then stitch to the back and stitch off. Find out more about ladder stitch here.
- If you want to make the figure seam along the centre back seam or side seam, draw a half triangle (see photo).
Notes
The figure seams on the side of the jeans. On the left a photo of the outside while sewing, in the middle the final result on the outside and on the right the final result on the inside.
A handy instructional video to watch this technique:
Get started with a no buy clothing style
Repairing clothes is great, but what do we do with all those other garments lying unused in the back of the closet? We get you started with the No Buy Fashion Guide. Over a hundred pages of cool ideas on how to look nice without even buying anything. Nothing. Nope. Nada. Not even second-hand! For 9.50 euros you will have it delivered straight to your inbox and thus on your tablet or mobile phone!
Will you also join this fun community? Read this guide too and discover lots of original ideas. Because so many cool clothes are already out there! Order the No Buy Fashion Guide from our webshop!
More sustainable tips from thegreenlist.nl
- Prefer to make trousers that are too big smaller without a needle and thread? Then try this hack for too wide trousers.
- Are your trousers too long? Then check out our DIY trouser shortening here.
- Is your knot off? Read how to sew these back on here.
- Tired of the (light) colour of an item? Read more here natural dyeing: dyeing clothes with natural textile dyes from plants.
- Even For darning your socks or jumper, we have a delightful DIY.
Main image right: thegreenlist.nl, other photos: Melanie de Oliveira.
