Another quick fix for an oversized waistband

I have a perennial problem finding pants that fit me. The fashion industry as a whole seems to have determined that a woman's hip measurement should be 10 inches larger than her waist, and mine is 12 inches larger. That means any pair of pants that fits over my butt is bound to be about 2 inches too big in the waist, leaving an awkward and unsightly gap.

Over the years, I've tried a variety of methods for adjusting my pants waistbands to close this gap. With lightweight pants, I can fold over a pinch of fabric along each side seam and stitch it down, as shown on in the first video on this page. (The second video shows how to add darts, which is a bit above my sewing pay grade.) And with bulkier fabrics, such as denim, I can add a piece of elastic or a drawstring to the waistband. 

But by far the simplest method I've found is a little no-sew hack I used on a pair of thrift-shop jeans back in 2015. They only needed to be taken in by about an inch, and they happened to have two belt loops roughly that distance apart on the back. So I just secured the two loops together with a wire twist tie, neatly nipping in the waist with only a minute of work.

Unfortunately, this method doesn't work if your pants don't have two conveniently placed belt loops. But I recently found myself wondering if there might be some other way to achieve the same effect. I'd already found a way to pinch in excess fabric on shirts and dresses using a cute little cinch clip, which I could transfer easily from one garment to another. But when I tried using the clip on a pair of lightweight jeans that I'd picked up at Goodwill last winter, it wouldn't stay put. The fabric was too heavy for the clip to grab hold of, so it kept slipping off.

What I needed, I thought, was some kind of clip that I could attach permanently to the pants. Something like a big hook and eye that would fit on the waistband an inch or two apart and, when fastened together, pull in that little extra bit of fabric. So on a recent trip to Princeton, I decided to pop by Joann Fabrics and see if I could find a fastener that fit that description. And lo and behold, the closures section had exactly what I was looking for: extra-large hooks and eyes, only around $4 for three sets.

Once I got these home, it was the work of a few minutes to stitch them into place, one on either side of the center belt loop. It took significantly less effort than either the side-seam method (which probably wouldn't have worked on this fabric anyway) or the hidden-elastic method. And the beauty part is, if my waist size changes, it will be equally simple to snip them off and reposition them either closer or farther apart as needed. Plus, when the jeans finally wear out, I can take them off and reuse them, making this method extra ecofrugal. (And yes, that is the same shirt in this picture as in the one from 2015. What, did you think I'd have discarded it after only eight years?)

This may not be the best alteration method for all pairs of pants., since it's not as neat or unobtrusive as the side-seam and hidden-elastic methods. But it is definitely the quickest and easiest. I'm sure I'll be using it again in future—particularly since I already have two extra sets of giant hooks and eyes in my sewing box.