elastic waists

Use a narrower elastic or a wider casing. In order to get an easy elastic waistband, the casing needs to be about an eighth to a quarter of an inch wider than the elastic. If you use thick elastic (like non-roll), you may even need to make the casing 3/8" wider than the elastic.

When the elastic bunches up as you describe, it means that your casing is too small for the elastic, and the elastic can't slide through the casing.

The inside of the casing is smaller than the absolute measurement from the top of the casing to the seam line, because of the thickness of the fabric *and* the thickness of the elastic. You need to allow for that when planning your casing size.

It's also a lot easier to run elastic if you use a bodkin or a safety pin as a handle at the leading end.

jenn

-- Jenn Ridley snipped-for-privacy@chartermi.net

Lately I've given up on thread-through casings in favor of stitching the elastic directly onto the raw edge of the waist, then folding under and stitching it down. I cut the elastic to the proper size, then overlap and sew the ends, mark the center front and sides, and pin those to the seams. Then I use my serger (you can also use a zig-zag stitch) to sew the upper edge of the elastic to the raw edge, stretching the elastic to fit the edge. (The elastic is against the wrong side of the fabric). Then fold the elastic down, and stitch it down while stretching it as before. Voila! No more bunching.

HTH

--Welmoed

I do this also. One thing I wanted to add to the end of the process. Once you have the elastic in, flipped and topstitched, hit it with a good dose of steam from the iron. This makes the elastic snap back to its original length better. I don't know why, I just know it works. ;) If you forget this part, sometimes you end up with a waist that's a little roomy.

Sharon

mamahays murmured while asleep:

another method is to finish the raw edge of the casing first, and then sitch it down enclosing the elastic as you go. You need to keep your sewing guage handy to measure and keep the width even.

Penny S

I still do the old casing with elastic inside it method. One advantage of this is that if your waist size changes (smaller, of course!) you can change the size of the elastic easily, impossible if it's stitched to the garment. Before threading the elastic through I mark both ends with colored chalk so that I can check whether the elastic has done a half turn in the casing while I was threading it through: both ends should show the mark if it's flat inside. I also leave the little opening unstitched after threading the elastic. This shows me the center back and makes the elastic accessible if I have to replace it.

Fran

No sewing tips, but when I read the subject line, I felt compelled to confess that they have been the ruination of me! I watched what I ate when I wore jeans or khaki's all the time. I could always tell when I hit the bread and sweets a little too hard. Knit pants along with sweats in the winter time have done me in.

I'm doomed. Happy, but doomed.

Cindy

Concerning the "threaded through the casing" method -v- the "stitch and fold over method", if it is for costumes that will be used again for various groups of people / children whose waist sizes may vary - the casing method will be easier to make alterations on in the future. The stitched-through method would also require much more seam ripping if the elastic stretched out or went bad. It happens quicker than you think. But, if the skirts are going to be other peoples personal property, then make it however you like and let them worry about it later - if those things worry anybody other than us sewing types. Just a thought. Joy

There were two women on one of the morning shows recently who have lost a combined 300 pounds. One of the ways they did it was to wear pants and skirts with fitted waistbands.

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

heh heh

I hear ya Cindy! Over the past couple months I realized every pair of pants I've made myself lately had been a bigger size. Ooops!!! So I've been trying to be good. It's paying off.

Ask me what I wore last Wednesday.

Oh, so nice of you to ask what I wore last Wednesday. Thank you ever so. lol It was laundry day and there were no clean jeans on the hanger. I realized that my jeans had been feeling a little roomy (these being the jeans that I had to buy in a bigger size or start shopping around for a spleenectomy to make more room in them....) So I pulled down a pair of jeans that are a size smaller from the closet shelf (where they've been living for 6 months while I couldn't squeeze myself in them!) And guess what! they fit!!!! Yay!!!! It wasn't the normal blue jean pull on wiggle I was doing that morning. It was a Happy Dance. ;)

'Course we realize that this was the day before Thanksgiving. And I did go to my mom's for Thanksgiving dinner. And we all know food tastes so much better when one doesn't have to cook it or clean up after it. So would those jeans fit today? I'll not risk the safety of my loved ones (that button could fly off and skewer one of them!) to find out right now. I'm secure that they did fit, and they will fit again. I just have to walk off some turkey. ;)

Sharon

LOL. First I stuff the turkey and then I stuff meself. Ugh. another Sharon

I make a vertical buttonhole in the casing and thread the elastic through that - works like a charm (idea from Lingerie Secrets by Jan Bones). It helps if you reinforce the area with a bit of fusible interfacing first.

BTW: there is a very nice article in the Threads archive on elastic waists, with some interesting ideas: I like the one where you do three channels but you leave the middle one empty - works very well to stop rollover.

:) Trish

Great idea, wearing fitted waist bands, although I wouldn't really like it, but it would sure keep me thinking about taking that next bite.

But I wonder if you've identified the cause of the increase in obesity

- we wear such comfortable clothes that we aren't noticing the gain as it occurs. I was quite surprised 2 weeks ago when I put on an evening dress I hadn't worn for 8 months and it was tight. 8-( I came home with renewed interest in my diet.

another Sharon

another Sharon

I thought it was eating too much and not moving enough? penny s

psssssst. Sharon. It ain't the turkey that causes the PROBLEM.

hehehehehhehe/ Cindy

I want to distill this idea a bit. I think that one cause is decreased self awareness (waistbands help), which "feeds" into everything else such as lack of healthy exercise and eating habits. I think our priorities are off, too. Example? Because of my pain condition I will circle the lot in search of a closer parking spot. Close parking = high priority. Some days that little bit more of a walk would be a good thing, but somehow I've gotten out of the habit of parking on the far end of the lot on low pain or nice days. Xena

I think the trend in obesity is mainly because food is cheap - the cheaper the food, the more people eat. It's why Americans are fatter than Europeans, and Europeans are fatter than Asians, and so on - more disposable income. Time was, meat and cheese were luxuries and people never saw a chocolate in their lives - they used to live on bread and bean stews. Of course, they were also crippled with arthritis at 40 and died like flies every winter - modern life ain't all bad, even if we do find different ways to kill ourselves.

Lack of manual labour is the other reason. I remember trying to lift children's tools at an agricultural museum once, and I could hardly get them off the ground. I was 13. Yet little kids used to work with these things all day long, and for adults the tools were even bigger. Twelve hours a day lugging these things around in the fields and I bet they weren't too worried about their waistlines. Probably more worried about how to split a carrot six ways for dinner.

Since I started working at a computer, I freely admit that every bit of me is heading south, so I shall now haul my fat ass off to get some masals chai... another of modern life's little luxuries ;)

:) Trish

LOL JJ, I used to refer to my habit of always forgetting things on the second floor when I was in the basement, and vice versa, as my fitness program! It happened SO often, several times a day, and since my studio/office was in the basement, it meant constant stair climbing. Putting my office on the first floor was the beginning of the spread.

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati