Pant thoughts

As I have said here several times I am pretty pleased with my pants fit. I feel confident to go now and try to apply the same tactics to a new pants pattern. But that will have to wait a bit. This morning I am back to work and torn if what I should do next is finish two teaching worthy summer straight skirts or go on to some summer dresses. It has been a while since I have made a dress and I am in the mood.


The truth is that behind this latest version of decent fitting pants lies a heap of about 900 (literally) pants that didn't fit.


So what did I learn? What made a difference? This seems worth sharing.


First of all that old adage about not doing what you have done before if you want a different result is true. Because I was on vacation and feeling reckless, rather than careful, this is what I did differently. This is what you might want to consider in your own pants quest:


1.  Consider that you might not know your body as well as you thought you did. Our body images have to do with a lot of things other than fact. For instance because I am tall I have been told my whole life I have a "long pelvis like Grandma." So every single pair of pants I have ever made has started with at least an inch added all around the top. This invariably produced a droppy butt, extra fabric around the legs, all those baggy front crotch wrinkles. Also bodies change. Like a lot of women of a quality age my legs have actually gotten thinner as my waist has expanded. In actual fact my straight hips require zero extra at the top and in fact a slight lowering of the seam allowance at the sides. I only needed that one inch plus at centre back because of my large butt and at centre front for my belly. Don't start out doing all the standard flat pattern alterations you think you need before you cut out the pattern.


2. Make your first pair just right out of the envelope only make basic width adjustments that you are obviously going to need to get the fitting pair over your body. Choose the appropriate pattern size of course. In my case I bought for my thighs, a 14 and added to the waist width. When in doubt go with a smaller size and add. Taking in for most people is too hard - you can't take in fabric that has already been cut away, at the crotch curve for instance.


I also want to say that IMO pants patterns are better than they used to be, in my experience at least with Simplicity. After 20 years of scooping away at the that old crotch seam because of the big butt (please see earlier shots in earlier posts for dramatic illustration) I just sewed up the Simplicity pants as they were and the crotch seam was perfect. I nearly, actually, fainted as this violates everything I thought I had figured out.


3. Make only little changes and make only one change in each test pair. The famous "clown butt" alteration takes in only 1/2" at the back inseam and adds it to the back crotch seam and that worked very well for me. I needed to see and understand the power of this simple little alteration, without messing it up with 45 other ideas, to know that this is actually something I should be doing from now on. Taking out some of the outer side seam curve, adding a 1/2" more to centre back and front were all additions I made one at a time.


4. Wear a fitting pair for a day before you either sign off on them or start cutting out more pairs. The body moves and what you don't see right away you will feel after a bit. Doing this helped me zero in on the best waistband fit.


5. Speaking of waistbands if you find the top of the pants hard to fit try moving your waist up to your natural waistline. It's now fashionable anyway. Having a natural anchor for your pants smooths out a lot of issues.


6. Don't go nuts with the fitting. I am amazed when I read blog posts that detail lots of "I moved this seam over 1/8" etc. This may be fitting heresy but unless your figure in faultless in the conventional sense over-fitting my in fact articulate your fitting issues (you are so glad I didn't post the pictures of my attempts at skinny jeans) or even worse waste your sewing time.


Listen, you are sewing pants not finding the cure for a life threatening disease at the molecular level. What you want are decent pants that can serve as a backdrop for more interesting to sew tops and which are comfortable to wear.


Be realistic. If you find this hard to do go sit in an airport lounge for a couple of hours. Even your half way fitted pants are going to look better than 99% of the pants you see on most folks in their store boughts.


Also Shams and Betsy thanks for your great comments (everyone read them after my last post) on closures. In my different versions I tried zippers up through the facings, skirt hooks and buttons. In the end I feel better the more secure I am so I think a button and a hook (two extensions is a good idea) are best.


Something is bothering me though.


Somewhere in the back of my brain is an idea for not having a seam at the end of the extension so the buttonhole is easier to make, but I can't remember how that went.


Anyone have any ideas?