The string came out of my gym shorts in the wash.  I tied a paper clip to one end of the string, and pushed the clip back into the hole.  The clip gave me something to work through with my fingers.  Took me a couple of minutes to push the clip all the way around the waistband.  
To prevent this from happening again, I tied two big knots at either end of the string.
                
 calvin
                
 June 2010