adrian_turtle | on beyond "darn it"

I had thought my mending expertise fizzled out around button replacement. I grew up thinking of laundry, ironing, mending, and all those obscure fabric things as needing to be snatched out of my hands before I ruined them. Now I do laundry routinely. I have even been known to iron sometimes, for special occasions. I just darned something successfully. (Not a sock, part of a very lightweight cotton outfit I was very fond of, that has been out of commission since snagging on claws last summer.) Well, more or less triumphantly. It's a bit lumpy. But the busy pattern hides it, and the outfit will be wearable the next time I want to dress up in 90 degree weather.

I am feeling triumphant enough to consider approaching other kinds of mending. Maybe even alteration. I want to put a drawstring in a pair of pajama pants that are too big for me. (Currently, they have an elastic waist, and no accomodation for a drawstring.) Should I just fold over the waistband? Are there good websites or books with instructions for this sort of thing?