Pants repair

[mbc]

Somehow, a pair of black pants from my suit has a small tear on the waistband.. it's really small (like a millimeter or two in width), and when the pants are buttoned, the button flap covers it, but i'm worried about it possibly growing larger over time.. it's over the waistband, so you see the white of the underlying band.. i.e. it doesn't go all the way through the pants.

Can tailors repair this sort of thing? How much should I expect to pay for it?

 

[bengal-stripe]

Yes, I'm pretty sure a workshop can repair it somehow. If the waistband extension covers the spot, you don't need invisible mending (re-weaving) which is quite costly. Have a word with the seamstress at your dry cleaners.

 

[davei]

I would put a simple stitch under the hole/tear to close it, then take an iron and some steam to it to stretch it out slightly (the stitch will create a pucker since there's no seam allowance.) If the hole is really that tiny you may not need to do the ironing, since it's covered by the flap anyway, and the pants will likely stretch on their own with time. Just close the hole so it doesn't get any bigger. A fix like this is really trivial, don't expect to pay more than whatever they charge for pant hemming.

Alternately, if you can find matching fabric, the entire waistband can be replaced. This takes a LOT of work though, and may cost more than the original cost of the pants.