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Guide

Elastic Waist Pants Sewing Pattern for Beginners

· 7 min read · Sewly Team

An elastic waist pants sewing pattern for beginners removes everything that makes trousers intimidating: there is no zip, no fly, no fitted waistband and no buttonhole. What is left is two legs, a crotch seam, a casing and a length of elastic, which most people finish in two to three hours the first time. The one decision that matters is the size, and for elastic-waist pants you choose it by your hip measurement, not your waist. This guide covers the Sewly patterns to start with for women, men and children, and the few techniques that make the waistband look as good as it feels.

Why elastic waist pants are the easiest trousers to sew

A pair of tailored trousers has a fly front, a shaped waistband with interfacing, a hook or button, darts and often a back pocket with a welt. An elastic-waist pair skips every one of those. The construction is:

  1. Sew the pockets into the side seams, if the pattern has them.
  2. Sew the inseams and side seams of each leg.
  3. Put one leg inside the other and sew the crotch seam in one go.
  4. Fold the top edge down to make a casing, leaving a gap.
  5. Thread the elastic through, join the ends, close the gap.
  6. Hem.

The only curved seam is the crotch, and it is short. Everything else is straight.

Women's patterns to start with

  • Relaxed Linen Pants with Elastic Waistband and Pockets are the standard version: a straight leg that skims rather than clings, side pockets, and a plain elastic waistband. The pattern page suggests linen or a linen blend.
  • Linen Cropped Pants with Elastic Waistband stop above the ankle and combine elastic with a drawstring, so the waist is adjustable after the pants are finished. The cropped length means less hemming to get right and a pattern that works for a wide range of heights, which the page points out.
  • Women's Minimalist Elastic Waist Linen Beach Shorts are the same construction in less than half the fabric. If you have never sewn trousers at all, make these first: a crotch seam on shorts is identical to one on full-length pants, and a mistake costs 60 cm of linen instead of a metre and a half.

All three are graded XS to 5XL and come as one file per size.

A men's pattern

Men's Relaxed Fit Linen Pants with Elastic Waist have an elastic drawstring waist, side pockets and a generous cut through the hip and leg, which the pattern page describes as forgiving for a wide range of body shapes. The construction is the same as the women's pants above, so if you sew for a partner or for yourself, this is the matching first project. Sizes XS to 5XL, with linen, linen blends, cotton lawn, chambray and lightweight twill all suggested.

Children's patterns

Children's elastic-waist pants have one extra advantage: a child can pull them on without help. Two to pick from, both in sizes 2Y to 12Y:

Children's pattern pieces are small, so a pair of 4Y shorts is an evening's work and prints on a handful of pages.

Choosing the size by hip

With a fitted waistband the waist measurement decides the size. With elastic it does not, because the elastic pulls the waistband in to whatever your waist is. The measurement that has to be right is the hip, the fullest part below your waist, because the pants have to pass over it when you pull them on and sit without pulling across it when you sit down.

Measure your hip with the tape level and snug, compare it with the chart on the pattern page in centimetres or inches, and pick that size. If you are between two sizes, take the larger one; the elastic absorbs the difference at the waist. For children, use the chest and hip measurements on the chart rather than the age label, and when in doubt go up a size and shorten the legs.

The second measurement to check is the length. On a straight-leg pattern the leg is easy to shorten or lengthen at the hem before cutting: measure from your waist to the floor along the side of your leg, compare it with the finished length if the pattern gives one, or simply add a few centimetres of hem allowance and decide the length when you try them on.

Fabric

Every pattern above is drawn for linen, and the pattern pages agree on the alternatives: linen-cotton blends if you want less creasing, cotton lawn and chambray for a lighter pair, lightweight twill for something sturdier. Use a mid-weight linen, roughly 180 to 230 grams per square metre, for full-length pants, and a lighter one for shorts.

Pre-wash the fabric before cutting; linen shrinks 3 to 5 percent on the first wash, and an elastic waist does not fix a leg that has become too short. Buy non-roll woven elastic in the width your pattern's casing is drawn for; common widths are 3 to 4 cm for adult trousers and 2 to 2.5 cm for children. Buy it a little longer than your waist measurement.

Sewing the casing and inserting the elastic

This is where a beginner pair either looks home-made or does not, and four habits make the difference.

  • Cut the elastic to fit, not to the chart. Wrap it around your waist where the pants will sit, pull it until it is snug but comfortable, and add 2 to 3 cm for the overlap. Elastic varies in stretch, so the pattern's suggested length is only a starting point.
  • Do not stretch the fabric while sewing the casing. Fold, press, pin, and sew the casing with the fabric relaxed. A casing sewn under tension ripples when it is released.
  • Overlap the ends, do not butt them. Lay one end over the other by 2 to 3 cm and sew a square or a wide zigzag through both layers. A butted join with a single row of stitching pulls apart in the wash.
  • Anchor the elastic. After closing the gap, distribute the gathers evenly and stitch vertically through the casing at each side seam. This keeps the elastic from twisting inside the casing, which is the thing that makes an elastic waistband feel cheap.

If the pattern has a drawstring, make the drawstring first and feed it through the casing with the elastic, or through a second channel if the pattern draws one. Buttonholes or small eyelets at the front let the drawstring out.

Before you print

All of these are PDF patterns you print at home, and each includes an A0 file for a copy shop. Trousers are long pieces, so the A0 option is worth considering, but at home they print on fewer pages than you expect because every size is a separate file. Read How to Print a PDF Sewing Pattern at Home before your first print and measure the test square, because a crotch curve printed at 97 percent is a pair of pants that does not fit. Then start with the beach shorts, and move to full-length pants the following weekend. The complete list of pants and shorts is in the Sewly catalog and on the patterns page.

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