Due to significant weight loss, my old pants don’t fit. For all my other pants I just toss them and get new (or thrift) pants but I have two pair of wool dress slacks that I really want to keep. The waist needs to have 2-3 inches taken out of it.
Is this even possible and the pants will still look and fit right? Or will I end up with something ridiculous like my front pockets on my hips?
Who would do this? A tailor? A dry cleaners? Any chance the place I bought it (Men’s Wearhouse) can do it? Or is it better to find my own tailor/seamstress?
I had some suits that no longer fit because of weight loss. There is a limit to how much alteration can be accomplished. I do think you could take them to Men’s Warehouse and see what they can do. Also, many dry cleaners have people that do alternation. In general (and only my opinion) dramatic alterations are not feasible.
The dry cleaners I’ve visited have the sewing table in full view, often with a curtained-off area in which you can change into or out of the pants that you need to have altered. So yes, check with your local dry cleaners.
It’s certainly worth looking for a place that specialises in alterations. I don’t know what’s available where you are, but I use a high street tailors that specialises in alterations - they do all sorts. Alterations to suits, dresses, jeans. I often see similar services in dry cleaners that have someone in the window on a sewing machine. It’s certainly worth a go, a good tailor/seamstress can do quite dramatic alterations.
Is a 38 to 36 waist considered dramatic?
I wouldn’t say so. I’ve had similar done to dress trousers before.
Yeah, I think shrinking the suit jacket was more of a problem. A couple inches on pants should be doable.
Look up local tailors. This is exactly their business. They live on alterations for weight changes.
I do know that at least in the past, if you bought a suit from them and had alterations done, they’d re-do the same alterations for free. So like if they took in the pants and you got fatter, they’d let them out for no charge. Or vice-versa. They can absolutely do alterations.
When I was young and struggling my father decided I needed a suit, so he got one from a clothing store that was going out of business. Only problem was he picked out one that was a full size too big. A tailor managed to take in both the pants and the jacket and made it fit right. Your biggest problem will be taking the waistband and rise in and possibly slimming the legs. A good tailor can do it, but make sure they explain to you just what it need so you know they know what they’re doing
Not dress pants, but I’ve had jeans taken in four inches (38 to 34). One of the pairs ended up with the back pockets too close together upon close inspection, but otherwise they were fine and I got a few more years wear out of them.
Two inches should be a cinch (pun intended).
Just curious; what did it cost to get blue jeans altered like that? I’m wondering because many aren’t that expensive to buy new versus the tailoring fee.
It was over 30 years ago, when I was working at a school uniform shop and was friendly with our staff alterations crew. Might have been $10-$15 for two pair of jeans. Girbaud jeans, which were in fashion at the time and for sure cost north of $50.
In the late '90s, there was a place close to my work that would hem pants, repair inseams, etc. for less than $10.
Even now in 2025, still living in the New Orleans metro area, getting dress pants hemmed ranges from $13 - $17 (I last had some done in May). These aren’t swank places that make bespoke men’s suits or anything like that. Just workaday alternations-specialist tailors that crank out various kinds of clothing repair work for a good price.
Thanks. So if hemming pants costs $13-17, I imagine that taking them in might be twice that or so? That gets close to the cost of new blue jeans (roughly $50 for many Levi’s).