The mysteries of pant fitting - I'm starting to get it

It's taken me about a year of trial and error, multiple muslins, and several drafts and re-drafts, but I finally have a pattern I'm happy with.  I came close last winter, I had a pattern that fit, but I wasn't completely happy with.  The biggest issue with that pattern was the double darts I had to put in the waist.  My ultimate goal is to make jeans, and since I can't find a jean pattern in my size that I like, I have to start from scratch.  I know how to turn a standard trouser pattern to a jean pattern, but I wasn't sure it could be done with the double dart pattern without completely messing it up.

This winter, I've been working with a couple different patterns, trying to narrow the waist, while still leaving room for my hips with not so great results.  Then I pulled out my Surefit kit again and decided to follow the drafting directions exactly, unlike last winter when I tried taking some of the ease out, and found out very quickly I need to add it back in and had to make so many other changes, that it wasn't the same pattern in the end.

The result from this newest re-draft?  Close, I liked the fit in the waist and didn't think the legs were to wide, but they still needed some work.  The problem, drag lines in the back and the hem pulling up on the inseam. 

 

I tried adding to the inseam, like I did last year.  Didn't work.  I tried taking a wedge out of the side seam, as directed to do in the Surefit instruction book.  Didn't make a difference.  I was at a loss as to what to do next, so I turned to my friends at Pattern Review. Right away it was suggested that they were hanging off grain.  But I had already double checked the pattern and the pants, and in both cases the grain line was straight.  So what was causing them to hang on my body off grain? 

 I needed more room in the hip.  More hip room meant a bigger waistline, so I was very reluctant to make this change because I thought I was going to end up with the dreaded double darts again.  But then it was explained to me that it wouldn't necessarily change the waist, because what I added to the hip, I'd take out of the center.  

What I needed to do was similar to a knock knee adjustment, but higher in the torso.  I needed to cut the pattern from side seam to center, shift the upper portion toward the side seam, redraw the grain line and true up the seams.  This maintained the original portions of the pattern, but added more room in the hip and subtracted from the center.  To figure out how much I needed to shift, I had my husband hold a yard stick straight up & down from my knee and measure how much the grain line on the pants veered off at the low hip.  He measured the front to be off by 1/2" and the back, well some where between 2 & 3 inches.  It was different on each leg.  This left me scratching my head.  I didn't think I could shift one leg more than the other, so I decided to start with an inch.

It didn't work, or at least I thought so.  What it actually ended up doing was throwing the grain off all the more.  It was suggested on Pattern Review that I lay this pattern over last winter's pattern with the gain lines matched and to see what's going wrong.

Right away it was almost apparent.  I still needed more room in the hip.  Using last winter's pattern I added a little extra to my current pattern.

This straightened out the back, but the front was still a little off and a little tight in the tummy. So I added the 1/2" to the center front that I took out when I shifted them.  It turned out to be a little to much.  The waist was a little to big and I had a little to much fabric in the tummy.  I started to remove from the center front in small increments. Just a 1/4" did the trick.

I'm beginning to realize that when I need to add or remove width from a pattern, it's the center seam I should be adjusting.  All this time I've been trying to take room out of the side seams, and throwing the hip lines off.  If I have time before I go back to work this spring, I'll revisit the Connie Crawford pattern I tried earlier and try adjusting the center and front princess seams to get a decent fit.

Breaking the fitting rules

If I sew something for myself and I'm happy with the way it looks and the way it fits, who cares about the rules?  I'm talking about wrinkles and drag lines that come from a not so perfect fit, especially on pants.  The general goal in the sewing world is to have a garment with no wrinkles or drag lines.   Pants are always going to have some wrinkles from the way you're standing, sitting, or moving, and really who stands with their legs apart and butt sticking out, as has been suggested to get rid of the inner thigh wrinkles.  I have full thighs, that's just how I'm built, when I walk I'm going to get some wrinkles in that area.

I also have wide hips, and another rule I'm having trouble following is that pants must hang smoothly from the widest part of the body.  If I followed this rule I'd have very wide legs.  While I don't mind a wide leg jean, I do want some tapering to the ankle.  I'm not talking skinny jean shaping, but I also don't want a 40" opening at the ankle either.  While I was looking through one of my fitting books, I noticed a woman with a body shape similar to mine, who took a pattern that fit her everywhere else but the hips.  She adjusted the pattern to fit her hips, while still maintaining the rest of the pattern.  In her case, the pants come out from the waist to cover her hips and then come back in under the hip to fit the rest of her leg, and it looks ok.

Since I started this fitting journey last winter, I've been looking at pants on other people.  I'm assuming most people are wearing ready to wear, and I have never run into anybody commenting about the wrinkles under the butt, or the drag lines from the hip, or how the pant leg doesn't fall smoothy from the widest part of the body.  Most people don't notice unless it's very poor fitting. 

Looking at ready to wear on other people, made me realize, as long as I like the way it looks when I put it on it's good enough, and I'm the only one who I need to please.  If I follow all the rules, and end up with a garment that I'm not happy with; then what was the point of sewing it?

Edited:  You can't throw all the fitting rules out the window, as evidenced by the last pair of pants I made.  They're not bad, but they're not great either. 

Meet Minion Dave

My 16 year old daughter hasn't out grown Disney movies.  She loves Despicable Me, and she really loves the minions, so when I saw this pattern I knew I had to make one for her.

This was a fun little project and a nice break from the garment sewing I've been doing.  From start to finish only took a few hours.

The pattern called for felt scraps for the pieces, but since I don't work in felt I didn't have any.  I didn't want to spend to much so I thought Walmart would be my best bet.  Unfortunately Walmart only had felt in black and brown.  I could of bought a pack of felt squares, but in order to get the colors I needed, I'd have buy two different packages and then what was I going to do with the rest it?  I chose to substitute fleece instead, and bought 1/4 of a yard of black, blue, grey, & white.  There's still enough there to make 3 or 4 minions.  While the fleece worked, I'm not so sure I'd buy fleece from Walmart again, it's very thin and I'm worried about it stretching out of shape.  For the stuffing I cut open 2 pillows that I had made her years ago that she was done with and reused the stuffing.  He's a little lumpy, but she doesn't care, she loves her minion and named him Dave.  Since I have fabric left over she wants me to make another one who she plans on naming Phil.

When my son saw this he put in a request for a pillow in his Minecraft character's likeness.

Butterrick B5504 A wearable muslin

 They don't look to bad.  Actually they fit better than anything I've sewn for myself, however there are a few problems.  They feel 1 size to big.  Looking at the finished measurements I almost think I could go down another size. They feel a little fluffy right around the tummy and while I'm glad that they hide my tummy, I don't think I need quite that much fabric in front.

One common complaint about Connie Crawford patterns is they're very boxy, and this one is no different.  I don't know of anybody, no matter what size, who's waist is as wide as their hips.  I know on drawstring or elastic waists, it needs to be wide to be able to pull the pants up over the hips but still I don't need 8 inches of ease in the waist.   I tried to take out some of that excessive room by doing some hip shaping, but didn't consider how that was going to affect the drawstring casing.  I have some puckering in the casing on the side seams where it didn't want to fold over nicely, but once I have the drawstring tied, it's not so noticeable because the drawstring puckers everything.

Still a little to much room in the waist.  At least 6 inches.

Alterations that worked:  Shortened the crotch depth 3/4 of an inch.  I liked that the pattern already took into account a tilted waist, so the center back was cut higher than the center front and I didn't have to fuss to much with trying to adjust where the waistband fell, but I do think I could take maybe another 1/4" off both front and back.  I shortened them to carpi length.  The original pattern, straight out of the envelop, was almost long enough to be regular pants.


Alterations that didn't work:  Hip shaping, although it helped take out some of the fullness in the waist; it left puckers in the waistband.  If I try going down 1 size I'll leave the hip shaping out because the smaller size will have a smaller waist.

Other alterations I'd like to make:  I really like to make this into a zipper fly with button closure, like jeans.  I might have a better chance doing that with a smaller size.

Bottom line:  I wouldn't be embarrassed to wear them in public, but I think there's still work to do.

The Elroy Route

I am very good at making the simple way more complicated than it needs to be.  I excel at over thinking to the point that I will add 3 or 4 extra steps that weren't needed.  I am a pro at taking the long way around and finishing a task that could've been done in a shorter time period.

In our house we call it, The Elroy Route.  Elroy is my uncle, and has been known for taking very strange routes to get from point A to point B, often getting lost in the process and is to stubborn to ask for help.  I just took The Elroy Route in sewing.

I'm am working on this pair of pants.  It has a drawstring waistband that's incorporated into the pattern piece as extra fabric above the actual waistline and you just fold it over and sew it shut.  Those who sew will know what I'm talking about.

When I made my test pair it was very clear that I needed to drop the waistline because it was to high.  I'm not making old man pants.  Taking what I learned last year about dropping the waistline, I put a piece of elastic around my waist, adjusted the pants where I wanted them to sit, traced around the bottom of the elastic and proceed to cut a new waistline on the pattern.  I was smart enough to factor in the extra fabric for the casing, however because I had just changed the shape of the waistline now I have a strange shaped casing.

I puzzled over what to do next for a while, and finally pulled out the directions to see if I was missing something.  Boy was I, and if I had bothered to read the directions first I would've saved myself a lot of time and trouble.

See that line that says crotch depth adjustment line?  That's there for a reason.  It wasn't the waistline I need to adjust, it was the crotch depth.  All I had to do was slash the pattern along that line and drop the top part down about 2 inches.  This would've kept the waist casing intact and kept the pattern notches in the same place for the matching pieces like the pockets and pocket facing.

So now to fix this I need to go back and retrace the original pattern with the original waistline and drop the crotch depth.  See 3-4 extra steps that weren't needed.  It's a good thing we learn from our mistakes, because this is one I don't want to make again.

B5504 Pants adjustments

Last night I got to thinking about this pair of pants and realized there were other issues that needed to be fixed along with the waistband issues.  I remembered I had these issues last year but couldn't remember what I did to fix them.  So for future reference, here's what needs to be fixed and how.

Here's what I need to do to remove some of the drag wrinkles. I need to do this first because it will affect where the waistband sits.  I had some problems with this last year because every time I adjusted the balance lines, it dropped the crotch.  So I might have to pick between the lesser of the two.  I'd rather have the crotch line where I want it with the drag lines, that no drag lines and a crotch that feels to low.

In this picture you can see what the drag wrinkles look like from the back.  Also as mentioned before I need to do a knock knee adjustment.  Here's what I'll be doing to fix wrinkles around the back of the knee.

I still haven't figured out what to do with the waist yet.  I'm thinking a wider waistband with some hip shaping, and see if I can use the front seams to hide a dart.  I want to remove some of the fullness around the waist before I figure out if it should be a drawstring or a zipper fly.

Connie Crawford B5504 Pattern Review

I've been looking at ready to wear styles similar to this.  I like the style but I was a little reluctant to
use a Connie Crawford pattern.  I tried a Connie Crawford before and didn't like anything about it.  The proportions were terrible.  Too big in the waist and hips, and sharply tapered down to the ankle.  It looked like she was trying to design skinny jeans for someone with very wide hips.  Not a good look.

Knowing this about the last pattern I thought I better make a muslin to see if it was worth it.  Actually they don't look to bad.  I can add a little length and make them into pants or I can shorten them for capris.

It looks like I need to do a knock knee adjustment and figure what to do with the waist.  As you can see I need to remove some of the extra fabric in the front waist and you can't really see it in the back, but there's some that needs to come off there too.  I haven't figured out how to do this and still keep the drawstring casing in tact, or if I should put some darts in put in a zipper fly.  I really want to try and avoid darts if I can.  So I'm kind of stuck at this point.