Thursday, April 21, 2011

Pants fitting...

Somehow, I find myself in great need of new pants. Since I got my first burda magazine in April of 2009, I've wanted to sew model 118, these cute pants,
but my issue is in french, so that slowed me down a bit. I'm confident enough now in my pant construction skills to give it a go without instructions. What is slowing me down now is fit.
Here they are from the front. The inseams are sewn, but crotch and side seams are just basted so that I can adjust as needed. I think the fit is pretty good actually from this angle.
The side seams are nice and straight, but from here you can see that the back is not falling quite smoothly.
From the rear, I like the fit through the hips and backside, but I have wrinkles in the legs that radiate from hip to knee,
which disappear when I tug the center back up a bit. This does make the crotch just a wee snug, but it fixes the back wrinkles. So, dear friends, here is where you come in. What do you think is going on here? I'm thinking for this pair that I can make them work by shaving off a bit at the back waist, tapering to nothing at the side seams, then deepening the back crotch curve to compensate. What would you do?

12 comments:

BConky said...

Pull the back up and deepen the crotch curve (sew it deeper). It should do the trick.

Anonymous said...

When I was sewing my jeans I started a discussion on pattern review that helped a lot with fitting the back of pants, http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/sewingclasses/board.pl?t=58664
It might help if you let out a little space in the lower back of the bottom area and made the waist tighter so it pulled up. Does that make sense? They really do look great though for a first time.

wendy said...

they look pretty good!
my guess is that you need a smidge more crotch depth. did you see The Cupcake Goddess's awesome series on pants fitting this spring? It was super helpful.
She did many posts, but this is the one I bookmarked:

http://www.thecupcakegoddess.com/the-cupcake-goddess/2011/01/most-common-pant-alterations.html

Heather said...

I commend you because I honestly would not even notice that pull if it were me. I'm starting on a pair of beige wool trousers, I'll have to pay more attention to how they hang.

Joy said...

I've made this pattern twice. But that was early on in my pants sewing, so they've been donated ):

Hmmm...I get that pull, too, but haven't thought much about addressing it yet.

I'm curious - does the side seam stay centered when you scootch up the back like that?

I need to dig out my fitting book...

Amy said...

I don't have any suggestiong, rather I'm interested in finding out how you get rid of the wrinkles. They look familiar to me as I have seen them in pants I've sewn. Great fit for the first time around.

Mary Nanna said...

I have 3 thoughts:

1 - love the pattern
2- actually the fit is pretty good, and I could live with it as it
3) - I think the others are right - if you lift the top and deepen the crotch you will solve the problem - the question is - why? If you take the Palmer/Pletsch model, then wrinkles point to the problem - in this case you may need to let out the hip area, which is pulling the fabric off grain (my guess). By lifting the back crotch what you are doing is actually pulling a wider piece up to the hip, adding more room.

So this is my hypothesis and I will be interested to see how you resolve it (if indeed you decide to)

Kitschy Coo said...

I can't offer any fitting advice but I think it's a really good job for your first go!

Sarahbelle said...

Groovy, Baby.

They must, however, be hemmed long enough to hide your Birkenstocks.

Sascha said...

Oh my. This is above my pay scale.

p.s. You have just had a baby, you look c'est magnifique. There. Some French for the French sewing.

Jne4sl said...

They look quite good and could be fine as is. But if pulling the back up clears the wrinkles, releasing the sides a bit, should do the same. I think the problem is they are a hair too snug for the sides to fall level with the crotch.

Jne4sl said...

They look really nice and could be fine as is. But if tugging the center back clears the wrinkles, releasing the side seams a little through the hips should do the same. I think the problem is they are a little too snug for the sides to fall low enough to be on grain with the center back seam.