I bought some drawstring pants with my family tartan on it, with the intention of wearing them with a blazer and an Oxford shirt. The drawstring kind of ruined the look, so I took it out, intending to use suspenders or at least a darker color drawstring. Anyway, when I tried putting it back in, the string wouldn’t go past the seam on the hip. Is this a well-known design feature? How do I get around it without ripping the stitches open?
Fish a wire or straightened out hanger through it first. Tape the draw string to the wire and pull it back through.
[ETA: I edited this part in, Scudsucker ninja’d me, not the other way around]
You can also tape the wire to something short and stiff (like a smaller piece of wire) and push that through. It’ll be easier to manipulate that inside the clothing than the string alone.
My mother, a seamstress amongst many other accomplishments, taught me to attach a large safety pin to the cord, and then slowly scrunch the fabic, feeding the safety pin along, straighten the fabic out. Repeat as necessary.
I’ll give that a try, thanks!
This is how I’ve always done it…except I have a pair of sweats that the string came out just enough in the washer. Put a safety pin in the string & fished it about ¾ of the way thru when somehow the safety pin opened up, & of course, the pointy end went thru the fabric & jabbed me (Yeoww!!!) I was able to pull it back ½" to get it back in the sweats but cannot manage to close it inside the channel; nor is there enough room to turn it around so that I’m feeding the bottom of the V rather that the open top end of the V. They are sitting there mocking me until I admit defeat & pull it all the way our & start over again. @#$%^&!
If you want to spend a couple of dollars you can get tools intended for this purpose. I bought a set years ago and they’ve stood me in good stead. They are vastly easier to use than a safety pin. Here are about 10,000 examples: Amazon.com : drawstring tool
If you get the tool or the safety pin, either will work.
But the seams are probably going the wrong direction and your getting hung up under it. Examine the seam down the leg and which ever way they’re pointing start thread the string thru the opposite direction.
If you’re lucky they’ll all go the same direction.
There’s a way to finagle around it but it’s tricky.
IANA seamstress. I can’t even mend straight.
But IMO aren’t the side seams on pants usually symmetrical? That is, the lap is either towards the front or towards the back on both sides. Such that whichever direction you try to thread around the waistband, clockwise or counterclockwise, you’re always going to encounter one seam the easy way, and the other seam the hard way.
Dude, you need a bodkin.Perhaps an odd bodkin.
The aglets are pretty substantial. I got it through three seams with repitition and brute force.
See post #6 
You can use a large paper clip too.
Pro Tip: point the open end toward your hand.
The lead weight from a fishing set is easier than a safety pin to move inside the fabric. (But don’t accidentally grab a fishing lure!)
I hear ya – had to do basically the same thing in order to replace a broken drawstring.
I ‘catch’ all of my fish at the store
You can go one better and catch them at the restaurant. Sooo easy.
then what should I do with all of the extra cedar shingles?
I’m hoping those aren’t literally roofing shingles. If so you’re cooking a lot of noxious chemicals out of that wood and into your salmon. Though I know you’re smarter than that.
Just had an aglet disintegrate in my hands. On, no less than, my favorite hoodie.
It’s too trashed and hole-y to worry about replacing the string or aglet(yes, yes, I have an aglet machine, its how I roll).
What to do? Just pull the string and toss it? No its a good string. Might need it. And I happen to like the strings hanging down, as a look.
(Here again, its actually too messed up to wear out, still, my fave)
It has a picture of a hoodie on it. The Hoodie “hoodie”. Who knew? Its kinda famous. The kids got a giggle out of it.
Anywhoo..I tied that knot that will keep it from going back inside the hood placket. Or coming out in the washing machine and causing trouble.
Yeah, I’m safe now. Whew.
I tie figure-8 knots in the ends of all my drawstrings as soon as I get the item home. When it comes to drawstrings lost inside seams, prevention beats cure every time.