Using double sided tape for a neat waistband

A while ago I bought Prym Wonder Tape, which is a narrow double sided tape intended for keeping fabric in place while topstitching. Getting the inside of a a waistband looking as good as the outside is always a challenge for me so I bought the tape with that in mind. For my latest Anita jeans I gave the tape a try so I thought I should share how it works (I forgot to take photos during the actual jeans sewing, so the photos below are just an illustration of the principles).

1. 1. First apply the double sided tape on the edge of fabric
2. For the jeans waistband I prepped the fabric by sewing a narrow seam to use as a guide for the seam allowance and pressing. Then I added the tape.

2. Fold in the seam allowance

For the jeans I also did some basting just to make sure the waist band stayed put. The folding part was a little bit tricky as the double sided tape tended to get stuck in the wrong places, but it was easy to remove without ruining the glue.

Here is how the jeans waistband looks on the inside

I always use regular navy thread in the spool when stitching jeans as it gives the best looking result. As you can see the fold looks quite nice and even – definitely better than my waistbands normally would look like (I also interfaced the inner waistband with fusible).

I also used this double sided tape on my new Burdastyle swing shorts. Here I blind stitched the waist band and it worked nicely for that purpose too.

So to sum it up: I think using the Prym tape definitely can help with making waistbands looking neater.