I don’t know about your boys, but my eight year old is not fond of the new elastic ankle look on pants. He says they feel weird. But it is getting increasingly harder to find pants that have a normal hem and fit him well. It doesn’t take much work to turn one on these pants into the old style again, as long as the cuff is the same material as the rest of the pants.

For most alterations the first step always involves a seam ripper. You have to take out the old stitches in the hem before you can remove the elastic. This pair had three rows of stitches, which took a little time to remove, but not too bad.

As you remove the stitches you will begin to see the elastic that was sewn into the hem of the pants.

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After you have removed the stitches around the entire hem, simply cut out the elastic. Then be sure to remove all the excess thread from the old seams.

The final step is to just re-hem the pants with a top stitch. Look how nice they look. Taking out the elastic also causes the pants to be a bit longer because they no longer have that billowing effect from the elastic.

See the difference before an after. Now he is happy to wear the pants!

If you have clothes that your kids like except for one little thing, pause before you pass them on because there may be a simple way to alter the clothing to make them fit their style.

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