Hi, I am Elaine Terrell, the owner of Elaine Terrell's Dressmaking and Alterations. Today I am going to show you how to replace the elastic in the waistband of a skirt. Now the waistband on this skirt is constructed in such a way that there is a separate waistband or casing sewn on to the skirt. It also has a row stitching through the elastic. So the first thing we are going to do is remove that stitching and this is going to free up the elastic that's in there.
So what I am going to do is take out some stitching from like here to here wide enough to put in some new elastic and now that we have opened up the casing, we can see that all the elastic which is lost of its elasticity it's not doing its job anymore and we are going to take and we are just going to pull that straight out and what I have here is some new elastic. It's a three inches less then the measurement of the person's waist and now I am going to take this end of the elastic with the safety pin and use that pin and insert it into the opening of the casing. The elastic needs to go flat all the way around the waistband.
Now here comes my pin. I am going to take that pin and undo it and I am going to pin it through the end of the other end of the elastic. This is so that neither end of the elastic can slip back into the casing and be lost. Now while that's pinned I can pull the elastic and then what I have here is my pin and the two ends of the elastic and we are just going to make sure that that elastic is in the casing and that the elastic hasn't twisted. So the next thing I am going to do make sure I can hold on to my ends of the elastic because we don't want to lose those. I am going to take the two ends and I am going to overlap them about 5, 8, 7 inch. I am going to put a pin in.
Alright, the next step is to take this elastic ends that are now pinned and we are going to put them in the machine and we are going to use a zigzag stitch and we are going to stitch the ends of the elastic together. Take it out of the machine then I clip my threads. The next thing is the elastic is now stitched together. I used a zigzag stitch. Now we are going to just let that elastic flow as far as it wants to into the waistband.
Now I am going to close up the skirt and the casing. All I need I have the very small space so I just need one pin. Now we come over here to the sewing machine. We just have maybe less than three inches probably to sew up. We are going to stitch the opening closed. Now I am done stitching. I am going to remove the skirt from the machine. I am going to clip my threads.
Now you have some new elastic in the waistband. It's going to be the proper measurement and this is it. This is how you replace elastic in the waistband of a skirt. Now next, I am going to show you how to take in the size of a blouse.