# Ballooning Pockets on Flat-Front Pants



## Mercrutio (Apr 1, 2009)

Will adding an inch to the waist and letting out the seat eliminate the problem of the front pockets slightly flaring outward on an pair of flat-front pants? 

A store's tailor suggested that these alterations wouldn't do the trick and said I needed the next size up. I decided to take the question to the forum, and ask its educated readers. 

Thanks in advance for your insight.


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## cmacey (May 3, 2009)

Mercrutio said:


> Will adding an inch to the waist and letting out the seat eliminate the problem of the front pockets slightly flaring outward on an pair of flat-front pants?
> 
> A store's tailor suggested that these alterations wouldn't do the trick and said I needed the next size up. I decided to take the question to the forum, and ask its educated readers.
> 
> Thanks in advance for your insight.


Not seeing a photo of the trousers as worn, it is hard to tell the situation. Tailoring of the trousers may help but you may have to go the next size up. If the gain in "girth" is not so much that you can loose it reasonably soon, leave the tailoring alone and loose the weight - saves money any way you look at it. If you need the trousers soon, you will have to decide based on your instincts. Good luck. Provide photo for anyone else who wishes to help...


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## McKay (Jun 13, 2005)

Mercrutio said:


> Will adding an inch to the waist and letting out the seat eliminate the problem of the front pockets slightly flaring outward on an pair of flat-front pants?
> 
> A store's tailor suggested that these alterations wouldn't do the trick and said I needed the next size up. I decided to take the question to the forum, and ask its educated readers.
> 
> Thanks in advance for your insight.


I've seen that with flat-front trousers and not with an otherwise-identical (including size) pair of pleated trousers.

If your solution is to alter them, the advice I've been given is that it's easier to get the next size up and alter "down" than to try to alter "up".


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## Mercrutio (Apr 1, 2009)

cmacey said:


> Not seeing a photo of the trousers as worn, it is hard to tell the situation. Tailoring of the trousers may help but you may have to go the next size up. If the gain in "girth" is not so much that you can loose it reasonably soon, leave the tailoring alone and loose the weight - saves money any way you look at it. If you need the trousers soon, you will have to decide based on your instincts. Good luck. Provide photo for anyone else who wishes to help...


Thanks for the response. No photo is available, as I left the pants at the store. Basically, I wanted to some input as to whether, as a general proposition, flat front pants that are somewhat too small and therefore create a slight "ballooning front pockets effect" may be successfully altered, so that no "ballooning" takes place, via letting out the waist an inch.

The reason I'd prefer to let out the waist is that the next size up are baggier all around. They'd cost more to tailor properly. The pants that I tried on would be perfect, except for this slight outward curve of the pockets.

Obviously MTM would be a solution--but of course I didn't ask the question so that I would be told, well, buy made to measure; rather my question is, can an OTR pair of pants be fixed this way, or is the next size up, and any attendant tapering and other alterations that requires, the only way to solve this problem?


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## Beau (Oct 4, 2007)

Are the trousers tight in the waist and seat? If not, then you may just end up with a loose fitting pair of trousers. Slashed/angled front pockets were designed to combat the problem you describe. 

Do the trousers pull across the front, showing a sort of "whiskering' wrinkles? Do these trousers feel tight throught the hips?

If your answer is no, then I would suggest another make of trouser. Try Ermenegildo Zegna. Pricey, but they look good and I have wide hips.


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## a tailor (May 16, 2005)

what the tailor was telling you is. that there was not enough cloth on the inside to let out and solve the problem. 
possibly the same size in a fuller cut model. they do make different models.
or try a different brand that is fuller cut.


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## Mercrutio (Apr 1, 2009)

Beau said:


> Are the trousers tight in the waist and seat? If not, then you may just end up with a loose fitting pair of trousers. Slashed/angled front pockets were designed to combat the problem you describe.
> 
> Do the trousers pull across the front, showing a sort of "whiskering' wrinkles? Do these trousers feel tight throught the hips?
> 
> If your answer is no, then I would suggest another make of trouser. Try Ermenegildo Zegna. Pricey, but they look good and I have wide hips.


Thanks for the questions. You raise a number of issues.

First, they are a bit too tight in the waist and seat. Second, the ballooning in this case is slight, but with slashed/angled front pockets. While I'm a fairly thin guy (6' 1" 175lbs.), I do have rather pronounced hip bones, and I was wearing these pants just above them (where I'm sad to say, I'm softer than I'd like to be lately, though still not possessed of a belly).

With these pants, there wasn't a "whiskering," as you put it (what great, perfectly descriptive word, by the way), but one could see, the wrinkled fabric of my shirt, which I'd tucked in rather quickly and sloppily for the purposes of trying the pants on.


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## Nico01 (Jan 8, 2009)

I often have the same issue. I have a thin waist (32), but a large rear (as my gf and others have pointed out) and I find that some 32 pants are too tight to zip, some will not allow me to put my hands in them, and many balloon out at the pockets. My solution has been to buy 33 and cinch my belt with casual pants, and have the waistband (but not the seat) taken in on dress pants. On suits (I wear 38 jacket so the pants are 32), I have the seat let out, and that usually works well, although there is sometimes still light ballooning.

BTW, I wear almost always flat front pants, and they are worn on my hips, not my waist.


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## amplifiedheat (Jun 9, 2008)

Nico01 said:


> BTW, I wear almost always flat front pants, and they are worn on my hips, not my waist.


Inexcusable.


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## dfloyd (May 7, 2006)

*It appears you need to go to a different brand....*

I wear flat fronts almost exclusively, and I never have this problem. I wear BB Regent cut or Country Club. Just because you wear flat fronts, doesn't mean you can or should wear them on your hips. I wear them at my natural waist, and usually with braces when I am wearing a coat. If you're wearing flat fronts on your hips, you probably have too short of a rise,


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## Nico01 (Jan 8, 2009)

amplifiedheat said:


> Inexcusable.


Well then, I wont make any excuses, but I'll wear my pants wherever the hell I like, thank you very much.


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## Blueboy1938 (Aug 17, 2008)

*Well . . .*



Mercrutio said:


> The pants that I tried on would be perfect, except for this slight outward curve of the pockets.


. . . you _could_ have the pockets sewn shut:icon_smile:


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