Currently I am facing a real pants problem. All of the pants that I wear for work (4 or 5 pairs of khaki’s) are too tight in the waistband. I suspect that this is due to two reasons: shrinking and growing. I purchased all of these pants when I started my new job 3.5 years ago, so I believe that over time they have shrunk from repeated washing and drying coupled with the fact that I am growing. Now that I am over 30 (ssh, don’t tell anyone…), I gain and lose an amazing amount of shape on various areas of my body. My waist line expands and shrinks in a way that I didn’t even know was possible. While I train to maintain consistency in diet and exerice, there are times when it is difficult (I recently tore my mensicus and haven’t been able to exercise for nearly two months). There are times when I have to work late, or have engagements that prevent me from getting in my exercise and sleep regularly. I eat pretty healthy, so that’s not much of an issue. I also quit smoking, which has led to some modest weight gain. All of these things equal pants that don’t fit well. Ordinarly I would just go shopping for new pants at the Goodwill and Ebay first, then ultimately at the gap to replace them, but being on the diet means that I’m going to have to get creative. For casual clothes this is always less of a challenge because I can take liberties in my creations. For work however, this is a different story. Thankfully, I had the foresight to purchase only wide leg pants, so the hips and thights are fine, it’s really only the waist band that has become an issue over time. In the immediate future I can’t starve myself, and I can’t just start doing aerobics on a bum knee, so I’m going to try to snip out a little rectangle on each side of my waist band and put in a small piece of wide elastic and then cover with a coordinating fabric from some older scrap garments that I have on hand (maybe even old tshirts?). I’ll post a tutorial on my personal blog and let you know how it goes; wish me luck. In the long-term, I forsee a trip to the gap to replace my pants once the diet is over. I think that if I can get a good 3 or 4 years out of a pair of pants and then use them to make something esle later, I feel like I’ve done my part to reduce consumption and balance comfort with consumerism. Moving forward however, I suspect I see more skirts with stretch waist bands in my future closet.
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