Monday, September 9, 2013

A Look at Some Curves


You guys, I am so bad at this sewing + blogging + two kinds of school business! I haven't sewn anything since my Slytherin bolero, but I have thought an awful lot about protein structure and fibers. I've also finished drafting my first pants sloper for class, but have yet to sew it up. Even so, it's already been interesting comparing its shape to some of my pants patterns and RTW pants.

My initial draft, based on the pants block that the prof explained in class.  
Traced and ready to cut out in muslin! She wants us to mark (and baste on our muslins) the grainline, high and low hip, crotch, thigh, knee, and calf lines so that we can check for perpendicularity/parallelism to the floor when we do our fittings next week. I'm actually really excited to see if this is why I have all sorts of weird twisting at the inner leg on most of my pants! Also, I never knew that the back inseam is supposed to be 1/2" shorter than the front inseam, to accommodate the stretch of the bias section at the top. 

McCall's 6610 was my first "real" pair of me-made pants, but I did a lot of taking in at the legs and center back. I was never really happy with the crotch fit, and now that I compare the curve on the pattern and the teacher-approved draft, I can see why.

Look at how much more curved the McCall's pattern is!
The back curve is comparable, although I took out quite a bit in the center back seam on the McCall's pattern (said alteration is not reflected here), and not at the side seam, as it seems I should've done, at least according to the sloper. 

I also tried comparing it to the Colette Clovers pattern, and now it totally makes sense why I had to make all the adjustments that I did!

Slightly more curved at the front crotch, but the big difference is in where the legs fall. The Clovers are shifted toward the inseam. The hip is a little curvier, but not obviously so. 
Oops, I didn't line this up correctly. Still, you can see that the back crotch curve of the Clovers is much more "L" than my draft's "J" shape. But oh my goodness gracious great hips balls of fire, would you take a look at that extreme hip curve in the side seam! It's no wonder that they looked like vintage jodhpurs when I first sewed them up.

According to my professor, the usual baggy-crotch problem is the pronounced "J" shape on the front crotch curve. If you think about how a body fits into the pants, the scoop of the J is where your body sits. As she said, unless you're a man, you don't have a lot of errr...junk...to put into that J-scoop. My torso connects to my legs in a straight-ish line, so when I had the excess curve in my Clovers and McCall's 6610s, that led to awkward pooching where my legs connect to my torso, because nothing was filling in that scoop.

Here's my silly drawing to illustrate what I mean. The black line is the front crotch curve going down into the inseam, and the fleshy-colored bit is illustrating a body. When the curve is too J-shaped (as in the middle and on the right), there's all that space between the body and the fabric. Unless you're a man. My prof actually told us that when drafting pants for a dude, you need to find out which side he umm, prefers...and then make that side larger/more scooped to accommodate...things. This was an all-female class, so some people actually didn't understand what she was talking about at first. 

So, we'll see what this sloper looks like when I actually sew it up! It'll be interesting to see how the theories pan out in real life, but I'm inclined to think that my prof is correct about those curves, because 1) she's got years of fitting experience, and 2) I checked all my favorite RTW pants and the front crotch curves are all very flat, hardly curved at all. I'm really, really hoping to get some good pants out of this class!

And now that I've mentioned the word "crotch" a bajillion times, let's watch as my search keywords have a field day!

27 comments:

  1. Sounds like an awesome class - thanks for sharing all the info! :)

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  2. Great information! I've thought about how a front and back crotch seam are supposed to lay, so that was old news to me. But I didn't know that the back inseam is supposed to be shorter than the front. I also have the pant twisting around the leg problem. Hopefully that problem will be solved with your sloper! That way I can take note when I make a pair of pants in the future. :)

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  3. So interesting - and yes, many thanks for sharing! I had bits of it figured out, but it's great to see it confirmed and explained!

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  4. A great post with wonderful illustration and explanation. I look forward to your pattern drafting adventures!

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  5. Great post, it makes me want to sew pants!
    I have never sewn pants before, but when I do I will definitely refer to this post to make sure the pieces are curved correctly.

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  6. this is great info, and matches up with what i've figured out through my own pants fitting, so yay! i don't get why mccalls drafts the crotch curve the way they do--it makes no sense! i did know the back inseam was supposed to be shorter, but i never had an explanation as to why. on the clovers, aren't those drafted for stretch fabrics? that might explain some of the differences you note. anyways, great post!

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  7. Crotch. A bazillion and one, lol. This is interesting, I always have a problem with ready to wear pants unless they have some stretch in them. I bought a pants fitting pattern to try to get a good fit before I sewed trousers. Sounds like your class is very good. I look forward to hearing if your pants are the perfect fit.

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  8. Interesting! This is really informative! I'm excited to hear how the muslin fits!

    DUDE. The whole night school thing is WAY harder than I thought it would be-- I got five hours of sleep last night because I waited until the night before class to start my homework, and kept screwing up. It's almost like it's hard to do detailed work correctly at night after a 14-hour workday! But it's so interesting! I'm really looking forward to seeing how your class progresses! We're just drafting for dress forms, not real bodies, so it will be fun to see yours in comparison.

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  9. Was your pattern drafted per a specific text? If so -- have to know, which one?

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  10. Fascinating! Thanks for sharing this. Can't wait to see your pants and how they fit!

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  11. Many, many thanks for the illustration on the front crotch pouf. I often have trouble with RTW pants fitting the back and poufing in the front. It just confirms my suspicion that I'm bigger in the back and smaller in the front pretty much all over.
    Great post!

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  12. This is incredible information - I'd never thought of it before, but you're right - why do pattern companies draft such extreme curves in the front for us ladies?? Thank you so much for sharing - I'm really excited to see how your first muslin comes out! :)

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  13. Very interesting! And the caption on the last image had me giggling uncontrollably because now I have a mental image of the professor standing there saying what you wrote exactly and a bunch of people just staring at her.

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  14. Thank you for passing on all the good info!
    Your class sounds really interesting, I enjoy finding out all the technical bits too :)

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  15. Thanks for sharing everything you're learning in class! I'm a self-taught sewer who's always just done it here and there on the side and have recently decided to try to learn to sew "properly". I'd love to take some classes sometime - even just to know how to correct issues in purchased sewing patterns!

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  16. Hah. That damn poufy front thing. NOW I know how to fix it! I've been fiddling around taking in, letting out, goodness knows what. Thanks for the great post:)

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  17. A very timely post since I'm going to attempt to make my first pair of "real" pants. I have to say this was the first time I was able to read about the dry subject of pants fitting with a big grin on my face.

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  18. inseam is supposed to be 1/2" shorter than the front inseam, to accommodate the stretch of the bias section at the top.


    Must remember this.
    Is there a way to measure a j curve without merely using trial and error, and without getting really personal if you are measuring someone else.
    Do women have l curves ( capital el not i)

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  19. What fun, I look forward to seeing the muslin. Whether theories pan out or not, at least you now have a well conceived draft to modify. I appreciate the observation about the pant front and I've certainly experienced the excess fabric thing. But still the point where the inseam and crotch seams intersect usually isn't on the front of the body but back between the legs a bit. To my mind that's where the front curve is coming from, otherwise you'd be rotating the inseam toward of the front of the body.

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  20. That is very interesting about the front crotch J curve...very interesting indeed. I'm looking forward to your muslin. :)

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  21. Oh man. I wish I were still in the Bay and taking classes with you. All this learning you're doing is fascinating! I can't wait to see how these draft pants look like on you!

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  22. Thanks for reporting on this class! I'm really hoping to squeeze in some time for those classes at some point, but since I can't even keep up with sewing at all right now... we'll see! It sounds so informative, though, I'm looking forward to seeing what else you learn.

    By the way, we adopted a kitten last weekend! He is the greatest cat ever, and I now see why people love them so much :) But, one of the first things my husband said after discovering that I brought a cat home was that I have to make him some breakfast food toys, like that awesome sewing blogger did. You made an impression!

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  23. Oh, interesting! Now I'm wondering what my perfect crotch curve looks like...

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  24. This is such an informative post - crotch curves seem like witchery sometimes, but there's always a way to break it down, and make it a little less like magic to get well fitting pants. I am eager to see what results from the draft you have.

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  25. thank you so much for sharing this! i just sewed up mccalls 6610 and have that poofy crotch so this is a lifesaver. going to try the l-shape for my next pair.

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  26. I guess that explains why it works to take an old worn out RTW garment, take it apart, and take the pattern from that because I notice my RTW pants are curved quite differently than the pattern pieces. Loraine Henry has a You-Tube post suggesting that commercial pants remove length from the back lower crotch and add it to the length in the upper part so even though the J is not realistic to your shape and measurement it actually ends up fitting better and more attractive because it results in a thinner more flattering leg.

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