Alterations Making 2X and 4X Sweat Pants into 1X

May 02, 2025

Alterations Making 2X and 4X Sweat Pants into 1X

(Under construction- I took photos, but forgot to write the blog about these alterations- I will try to remember to come back and complete the instructions better! May 1, 2025)

My hubby bought me oversized sweat pants on clearance, when he found super soft 2X and 4X women's sweats, for a few dollars, knowing I can alter them.

I found the approximate end, of the rows of chainstitch on the waistbands, which made it easy to undo, basically like undoing crochet. From the beginning end, it will not unravel, only from the end of the last stitch.

The trick is to snip the locking stitch, and if you can't identify the last stitch, you can snip one of the front stitches, then begin picking from the back, the chain side.

Once the 3 rows of chainstitch are removed, I snipped the overlock stitches along the bottom, attaching the elastic to the waistband fabric. Once the looper threads are snipped, the needle threads pull out easily, releasing the elastic from the sweats.

I reused the same elastic, but on the 4X sweats, I needed to shrink it 8", on the 2X, I needed to shrink the waistband 4".

The plan- put pleats in the front waistband on each side of the center seam, to remove excess fabric in the waistband, but leaving the original hip width, because my backside and hips are very wide. I plan to have the pleats between the pockets, and center crotch seam. I also need to remove the excess crotch depth, and inner thigh area, tapering down to just below my knees.

I cut off the amount of extra elastic, stated above, then, to sew elastic back in a circle, I placed a small square of scrap fabric under the ends of elastic, where I butted the ends against each other, then used a zigzag sewing machine, to multistitch zigzag the butted ends, toģether.

to sew elastic back in a circle, I placed a small square of scrap fabric under the ends of elastic, where I butted the ends against each other, then used a zigzag sewing machine, to multistitch zigzag the butted ends, toģether.

Waistband elastic sewn into a circle

After securing the elastic into a circle again, marked both elastic, and the waist of the sweats, by the quarters, then I serged it along the wrong side of the top edge of the altered waistband, as it had been done at the factory.

Chalk wheel makes very accurate seam line marking for altering crotch seam. You want to measure your crotch seam to ensure you remove the correct amout of fabric in the crotch, and thigh area. After measuring your desired crotch depth, measure the crotch depth on your sweats. Turning one leg inside the other leg, so the wrong side is on the outside, for accurate marking.

I pinned along the inner leg seamline, and marked the desired seamline, then used a rotary cutter, to remove excess fabric.

I also used the chalk wheel to mark the amount of pleat I wanted, to remove excess inches in the waist. I then straight stitched the pleats (then cut out excess in waistband area, only leaving enough fabric to catch in the bottom 3/8" of the waistband, when I chainstitch the waist band and elastic back in place.

Trimmed off excess inner thing, tapering to just below knee, the serged the
inner thigh seam

Double chainstitch single needle çoverstitch, sewing the waistband back in place, making sure to catch the pleat tops, and pockets, in this bottom seam of the waistband.