Fix That Drawstring!.....339 Days To Go!!!

Drawstrings in pants are a pain in the ass. They come out when you are washing pants, they wind everything else in the wash load into a giant ball, they get tied up, they get tangled, the list goes on. But, here's one thing I can actually help you with: putting a drawstring back into your pants after it has come out!

This may seem simple. Well, because it IS simple. But you would be astounded by the number of people who would pay me to put a drawstring back in their pants. That's right, they'd pay me my full hourly rate just to put a drawstring back in. Astounding!

I was looking through my lil' basket of horror...er...joys (from my post on my basket of projects...) and I found a pair of sweatpants that had simply lost its drawstring. So I decided to fix it today. I mean, it is getting to be sweatpants weather.  These aren't fancy sweatpants. Nor are they sexy. But, they are comfy. Meet the sweatpants:

Here's how to put a drawstring back into a waistband!

1) Round up a drawstring to put into the pants. You can use 2 shoelaces (clean shoelaces, or new shoelaces) tied together with a square knot, you can use a cord purchased from the fabric store, you can sew one...in this case, I used an old drawstring I took out of a pair of yoga pants that didn't need a drawstring.

2) Round up some safety pins. I like to use a big one and a little one. Or, in more scientific terms, a 2" one and a 1" one.

3) Anchor one end of the drawstring onto the pants, by the holes, with the big safety pin.

4) Attach the little safety pin to the other end of the drawstring. This will be the end that you push through the waistband.

5) Push the little safety pin and attached drawstring into one of the waistband holes. 

6) You are going to use the safety pin to navigate the drawstring through the waistband. Gather fabric up onto the drawstring...

7) And then hold onto the safety pin and pull straighten the fabric. This will move the safety pin and drawstring along through the waistband. Keep doing this....

8) Here's what it will look like when you are about halfway done

9) When you get all the way around, pull the little safety pin and drawstring end out through the hole on the other side, like this:

10) Once you get the end of the drawstring to the other side, pull the 2 ends of the drawstring (after unhooking the anchored end) until they are about even. 

11) Working your way out from the center, work the waistband over the drawstring until it is even.

12) Shazzam, your pants are fixed!!! Congrats:)

Now isn't that easy? Hopefully you'll never go drawstring-less again:)

p.s. This literally took only 5 minutes. Oh, and leave a comment if you have a question or problem!