Fashionably Logan: Waistbands!- Tailoring #3

Bonjour world!

Today I am going to talk about that little strip of fabric on the top of your pants called waistbands... yay! Waistbands are very exciting because that is where you can add some more personality into the garment itself, and it is essential for the fit of the pants, shorts, skirt, whatever the garment is. If your waistband is too big, your pants will probably be too big as well. If the pants are smaller around the waist, then your waistband will pucker trying to fit onto the smaller size. I had the opposite problem when making dress pants in my tailoring class, my pants were a little big around the waist and so when I put on my tailored waistband, it puckered a little because the waistband was smaller. But I fixed it for the most part :)

As you can see, her waistband is too big for her

Now, there are two kinds of waistbands: curved and straight (theres also elastic and custom and some other ones but we'll get to those later). A curved one looks like this laid flat:

Whereas a straight one looks like this laid flat, just a simple rectangle:

A curved one will give you some more fit because it will be able to hug the natural curve of your body better than the straight one. But the straight one isn't bad by any means. It is a classic shape and it gives a classic and polished look to any garment- especially to men's suit pants.

Now I will talk about what I meant when I said there are more than two kinds of waistbands. In tailored or nicer garments, you don't use elastic or casings. You use the separate ones like the curved or the straight waistbands. But if you have a simple little skirt or something, elastic and casings are perfectly fine. They look like this:

In the picture, "regular" is what I would describe the straight waistband. Contour is kind of like the curved, but it is a little bigger in the front. Don't worry, I have real examples of all of these :) Casing is something you do in, say, sweatpants. The top of the pants are folded down to make a kind of tunnel, and you slide the elastic band through there and stitch it all closed. Elastic is where you take the top of the garment again, fold it down over the elastic so you can't see it, and do a stretch-stitch directly on the elastic. This could also be used for sweatpants or maybe a quick little skirt.

Contour

Elastic

Casing. You can see the elastic on the inside.

Adding personality to garments by waistbands. This is fun to do if you have a striped or plaid pants, you can turn the direction of the print and make it on the bias or at an angle... So say your plaid is going straight across. To make it more fun, turn the plaid at a diagonal. That's what I did with my pants :) you can also add some fun linings on the inside, make it a contrasting print or something different entirely, or do a contrasting color stitch if you have an elastic waistband. You can also do varying widths. Make it a thicker waistband for a touch of whimsy with a printed skirt. Make it a thin waistband maybe for dramatic effect. You could even add some piping around it or something for a little fun touch. There are lots of options!