Baggy crotch? Loose-fitting jeans? You’re not alone. Finding a well-fitting pair of jeans can be a struggle for everyone. Fortunately, there’s a way to tailor your jeans yourself to make them fit better.
How do you fix a baggy crotch in jeans? Taking in the seam and adding darts are proven methods if you have a sewing machine. If you don’t have a sewing machine, there are still ways to make your jeans fit better using hand sewing and even with an iron.
In this post, we will show you a few simple ways to fix baggy crotch in jeans using what you have. Let’s get started.
How To Fix Baggy Crotch By Sewing
If you have a sewing machine ready, then the way that will give you the best result is to take in the seam at the crotch of the jeans.
If you are familiar with the construction of pants, you know that the two legs of your jeans are joined together using two seams that form a 90-degree angle.
The first seam joins the inseam of the two legs, and the second seam joins the middle of the two legs. The two seams meet at the crotch.
There are many different methods to fix the crotch of your jeans depending on the issue. So, if the crotch of the jeans is too bulky, you can take in a little bit of each seam to make the crotch more fitted. Let’s take a look at how to do that.
You will need:
- A strong thread that matches the color of your jeans
- A sewing machine (optional)
- Sewing pins
- Fabric markers or tailor’s chalk
- Fabric scissors
Step 1: Measure how much you need to take in
First, turn your jeans inside out, and put them on. Then, hold the crotch seam and tug the areas that you want to make more fitted, and mark how much you need to take in using a fabric marker.
You may need to take in both seams or just one, depending on how much you need to take in and the areas that you need to tighten. You can take in just the leg seam, just the crotch seam, or both.
In this step, it may be useful to mark a curved line of the area that you want to tug in, with the line meeting the existing seam. This will make sewing much easier later.
For example, if you need to take in the leg seam, mark the new seam starting with the seam of one leg, and ending with the seam of the other leg. When you sew, the new stitches will meet the current seam and make everything look flawless.
If you need to sew the crotch seam, mark the new seam starting with the back crotch seam and ending where the zipper is in the front seam.
If you have a lot of excess fabric, it’s best to take in both seams so that the result will be even, and the pants will look proportionate.
Step 2: Pin
Take off your jeans and lay them down on a flat surface. Align the seam.
Using sewing pins, pin around the areas that you have marked down. This step will ensure that the two layers of the jeans won’t slip and slide when you sew.
The lines you have marked will be where you need to sew.
Step 3: Sew
Using a longer stitch length, sew a straight stitch on the curved line that you have marked, beginning and ending at the current seam of the jeans.
If you are hand sewing, you can use a back stitch to sew the new seam. Make sure to keep a straight line so that the seam will blend in with the sewing machine seam.
Step 4: Try on
With the jeans still inside out, you can try them on to see if the fit is just how you like it. If not, you can seam rip and make adjustments as needed.
Step 5: Cut off the excess fabric
If you are happy with the new fit, you can remove the excess fabric. Jeans will fray if there are raw edges, so you can sew a zigzag stitch to prevent the raw edges from fraying.
If you are hand sewing, you can use a blanket stitch to seal off the raw edges of the jeans.
Step 6: Decorative stitch (optional)
Turn your jeans back to the right side and sew a topstitch on the outside of the new seam to hold the seam flat. If your jeans have a decorative top stitch in a contrasting color, you can try to match the topstitching thread with the color of the old topstitch.
How To Fix Baggy Crotch In Jeans Using Darts
If you find that both the crotch and the waist of your jeans are loose, you can add darts to the pants to remove the excess fabric.
Darts are strategic folds secured using straight stitches in a piece of fabric that helps create shapes and make clothes better fitting.
You will need:
- A strong thread that matches the color of your jeans
- A sewing machine (optional)
- Sewing pins
- Fabric markers or tailor’s chalk
- Fabric scissors
Step 1: Measure
Put on your jeans and mark where you would like the darts to be. Darts usually start at the waistband and carry down the length of the hip.
You can choose to have two darts in the back of the jeans to make them better fit around the back or darts on both the front and the back of the jeans.
When you mark the darts, make sure to draw a triangle, and you can make the triangle as long as you would like. The two longer sides of the triangle will be where you need to sew your darts.
Step 2: Pin
Take off your jeans, and pin the darts in place, right sides together. The excess fabric will be folded inside the jeans, and the pins will be on the marked lines.
Step 3: Sew
Turn the jeans inside out and sew a straight stitch to secure the dart. If your jeans have pockets, make sure to avoid the pocket fabrics when you sew the darts.
Repeat this step for as many darts as you have.
Step 4: Cut (optional)
If you don’t have too much excess fabric folded inside the dart, you can leave the jeans as is and carry on with wearing them.
However, if the darts are too big, the excess fabric can bulk up your jeans and create weird lumps when you wear the jeans, which is what you don’t want.
If this is the case, you can cut the dart in the middle of the fold and remove excess fabric. Leave about half an inch of fabric inside the dart so that you can sew them down.
If you need to cut the fabric, make sure to use a zigzag stitch or a blanket stitch (hand sewing) to prevent the jeans from fraying.
Step 5: Topstitch (Optional)
Sew a topstitch on the right side of the jeans to hold the darts flat and secure them.
Repeat this step for as many darts as you have.
How To Fix Baggy Crotch In Jeans Using Heat
If your jeans are too big everywhere (not just around the crotch), there’s a way to shrink them down to fit you better. This method works especially well if the jeans are made from 100% cotton since cotton tends to shrink when it meets high heat.
However, if you want to use this method, you should know that it can be difficult to control the result. There’s no way to know how much your jeans will shrink or how they will fit after shrinking, so you should proceed with caution.
To shrink your jeans, first, wash them using hot water. For the best result, you should avoid using fabric softener because fabric softener can loosen up the fibers of the fabric and make this method less effective.
After washing, dry your jeans in the dryer using high heat. After your jeans are dry, try them on to see if they have shrunk enough to fit well. Repeat these steps if you need them to shrink down further.
How To Fix Baggy Crotch In Jeans Using An Iron
If you are in a hurry, the fastest way to fix a baggy crotch in jeans is to use a hot iron. High heat will shrink down the fibers of the jeans, and this method works best if you have a material that’s more than 70% cotton.
First, lay down your jeans on an ironing board, and spray the crotch area with hot water.
Then, iron over this area using the highest heat setting until all the water has evaporated. To ensure an even result, you will need to repeat these steps on both sides of the jeans.
Try on the jeans to test the fit; you will find that the crotch area is a bit more well-fitted thanks to the heat.
However, this method won’t generate a more durable result, and you may need to use a more permanent fix if your jeans are still too baggy at the crotch.
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