How to Make Maternity Pants from Regular Pants

The other day I went to Target in search of some black maternity pants. I only need one pair and I just need it to get me through 5 hours, 3 days a week. Basic black maternity pants are $35.99!

I'm no Frugal Frannie - there are plenty of things I am willing to drop money for - but pants (and especially pants I am only going to wear for 4 months) are NOT one of them.

So here's how I made a pair of maternity pants out of my current basic black pants. I don't know if I would have tried this if I had only one pair of black pants (luckily, I have two) - but I the result is both functional and free, which is what I was going for.


I started by drawing a slightly curved line on the front of the pants - this accommodates belly growth better than just cutting the waist band off straight. Then I cut it out (including the back, which I just cut straight across)
I used the waistband as a guide for cutting out two pieces of material from an old golf shirt (made of stretch knit). I used the shape as a guide by made the panels longer than the original waistband, that way they can be worn either folded down below the belly or up and over it. My preference on this changes from day to day.
I also used the original hem of the shirt, which I use later for the elastic casing - but that was just a shortcut to save time.


Next, I cut one piece of the shirt material straight across and left one curved, so it matches the waist of the pants. This picture does nothing to illustrate that point...
Next I took 3/8" elastic and fed it through just the back panel of material, making sure it was taut but not crazy small.

Right sides together, I basted down the seams, tried it on, and stitched the seams together using a narrow zig zag stitch.


Right sides together again, I pinned the stretch panel to the original waistband of the pants. Baste, try on, and stitch the seam. The back pockets are still functional but you could remove the front pocks and the zipper if you wanted to take bulk off the front of the pants - the openings end up being too small to use.
And voila! Maternity pants and a pregnancy bump update to boot!

About an hour after I finished these my mom called me and let me know that she had just sent me a box with not one, but TWO pairs of black maternity pants. Sigh...