Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Lessons I've Learned Regarding Pants Sewing

This is only my last two versions of my skinny pants draft...not pictured are the four that have since been recycled. 

I was going to title this "Final Thoughts on Pants Sewing" but that sounds like I'm done with pants altogether and have Figured It Out, which I most definitely have not! But I thought I'd share with you some of the things I've learned both in class and in the actual process of sewing.

In no particular order (and some of these are repeats of what I've said in various posts here and there):
  • Drafting from measurements is great and all, and it will probably give you a better fit than if you were to sew up your size from a commercial pattern (which is based on a block that may or may not be similarly-shaped), but it is not a miracle. Drafting still makes some assumptions about your body, about how those same thirty inches are distributed, about how your knees do or don't stick out, about your posture, about the angle at which your legs meet your pelvis, or even the amount of ease you prefer. My first draft was made to my measurements, but the drafting guidelines couldn't possibly have known about my swayback, my hyperextended calves, or that my lower legs come out of my knees at a funny angle. I still had to make corrections to my muslin, then transfer those to my draft, only to make another set of changes because the first set of changes affected how other things hung. Fitting is a trial and error process, and unless you are shaped exactly the way the drafting book thinks, you're still going to need to make changes. It's okay, you didn't do anything wrong, and your body is definitely not wrong
  • It's so much easier to see where changes need to be made when you have the balance lines drawn on your muslin. Having horizontal lines at the high hip lets you see when things aren't parallel to the ground, and having vertical lines up the middle helps you adjust things like grainline.
  • When making changes, it's way easier to just wear the muslin and have somebody else do the slashing, spreading, pinning, and seam ripping. Although I more or less managed with previous pairs of pants, it's dang hard trying to turn just your top half around to evaluate wrinkles without moving your bottom half. If you can pair up with a sewing buddy to have a fitting day, it makes life so much easier!
  • When making changes to your muslin, start from the top and work your way down, since the way the crotch fits will affect how the legs hang. If you make a knock-knee adjustment before correcting the crotch depth, you may find the first alteration unnecessary or just plain wrong. 
  • Sometimes the easiest way to tell what adjustments you need is to look at how your RTW pants fit (or don't fit, as the case may be). If the inner thigh area always wears out first/pills the most, that might mean a full inner thigh alteration (see #3 here for how to do that). If you're always getting a wedgie, you might need to slash and spread to lengthen the back rise (see #9). If, like me, you're always getting stuck in dressing rooms when trying on skinny jeans (true story), you might have very full calves...
  • Check your inseams: the front inseam should be about 1/2" longer than the back inseam. By sewing from the bottom up, and keeping the front and back at a 1:1 ratio up until the knee, and then stretching the back inseam to match the front above the knee, you make it so that the fabric will hug the back of your leg more in the curve under your butt. Totally makes sense, but I never would've thought of that on my own!
  • I already said this in the previous post, but it bears repeating -- make a muslin in a comparable fabric! "If you're going to make a paper garment, then go ahead and fit it in paper. But if you're planning to make a fabric garment, fit it in fabric!" This is especially true for pants whose final fashion fabric is going to be significantly different from cotton muslin in stretch, hand and drape. 
  • Of course, it can be hard to find comparable muslin fabric when your final pants are going to be made from stretch denim, so when sewing pants with stretch, baste together the pieces to check for fit before you insert the fly front or do pockets. My flocked brocade had a pretty significant spandex content (when it comes to stretch, even 2% is significant!), so I ended up taking in the side seam by about 1.5" on both front and back, and 1" on the inseam. 
The gray pencil lines are my skinny pants draft, which fit fine in cotton muslin. The light blue color pencil is what I brought it in to after the initial fitting. You can see I also lowered the waist significantly. And look at how flat that curve is, especially compared to these!

  • A lot of commercial pants patterns, and even drafting book guidelines, have a much deeper front crotch curve than is normally found in RTW pants. If things are baggy in the front crotch, flatten out the J by taking out what is essentially a vertical fisheye dart in the paper pattern (see #8 here). That will make the pants fit more like what we're used to.  For example, in my Edisto, Clover,  and Audrey pants, which are all made from commercial patterns, I had some level of bagging/pouchiness in the front crotch area, but in my work gauchos, which were rubbed off of a pair of RTW pants, I didn't have that issue. 
  • Before we made our final pants, our prof had us make a fly front sample set; she divided the process into four steps and we made a little sample for each step. I found it extremely helpful for reference since I can never remember how to do a fly front. Of course, it would've been more helpful if I'd done the samples in the correct direction! The principle is still sound, though...it's way easier to refer to physical samples that you can touch and manipulate than a diagram (or worse, just a list of steps!) in a book. 
These are my fly-front samples. We had to sew up step one four times, step two three times, step three two times, etc. In case you're wondering: 1) Sew up from the bottom of the curve, backstitching at the base of the fly and then basting it shut. Line up the edge of the zipper tape with the CF seam, sew to fly flap only. 2) Flip the zipper over and topstitch the fly piece to the tape. 3) Flip the zipper facedown again and sew it to the other fly flap (don't catch the other pants front...ask me how I know). 4) Flip the whole thing over and topstitch the little J; add a fly guard and bar tacks if you wish. It was tedious to do, but I'm glad in hindsight. 
Completed sample from the front!
  • Our prof also recommended that instead of trying to draft a contour waistband, to just cut a straight rectangle, baste it to the finished pant, and then pin darts in several places to get the right curve. Then you can just transfer the darts to a paper pattern and cut them out to make a curve. 
Now I know why all commercial waistbands don't fit me well...they're not nearly curvy enough! I wouldn't have ever believed this if I hadn't pinned out those darts myself to end up with this. 

  • Lastly, the whole point of a waistband is that it should act like a belt to hold the pants up. To that end, it should usually be about 1/2" smaller than the top of the pants, and the top of the pants should be eased into the waistband. I used to always have a problem with waistbands that were too big, and now I know why!
Finally (okay, I know I said I wouldn't say final, and I just said "lastly," so obviously I am having issues with ending and diction), don't feel bad if it takes a long time to actually make a finished pair of pants! I was sewing like a madwoman very very intense person to get my pants done in nine hours, and our prof even said that she doesn't think a good pair of jeans can be finished in under eight hours, and she's been sewing for 35 years!

Ever since I started sewing pants, I've spent a lot of time staring at people's butts and crotches (surreptitiously, of course) trying to figure out what kind of adjustments they need, if any. Learning to read drag lines and wrinkles can be tricky (and make you seem like a perv?), but it's worth it for a great-fitting pair of pants.

My smirking "I'm secretly staring at the drag lines at your crotch" face. And hey, thank you all so, so much for all your really sweet comments on my last post about these pants! I wore them all day and they were so comfy (and they didn't sag and bag, at least not that I noticed) and I felt so proud knowing that I made them.  

So, what do you think? Have I inspired you to tackle pants? Any enlightening lessons of your own you'd care to share with us?

29 comments:

  1. Absolutely lovely pants - the best slim fitting pant I've ever seen anyone make, actually. Thank you so much for sharing your process and all the alteration information and, yes, you have inspired me to strive for better fit! I would never have thought that your back calf alteration would be so much until you posted the pictures of the amount she added.

    You had a diagonal fold pinned out of the back of your pants muslin at the initial fitting. I have one too and don't know what to do to get rid of it on the pattern - what did you do with yours?

    TazzieM

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  2. Whoa, this is SO helpful! Thank you for taking the time to share all this info!

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  3. Wow, this post is a great resource. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Your pants are great, well worth the time invested and knowledge gained.

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  4. I love your pants posts! They are fascinating and inspiring and I and have them all saved up to read again when I actually try to make pants. So thanks!

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  5. Really great post!! I see several tips that really were lightbulb moments for me.

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  6. oh I am laughing so much about your description of staring at people like a perv reading their wrinkles and drag lines. i do that all the time! great posts and very cool pants.

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  7. Great post! I'm a dress kind of sewer, but my current project has me making pants. I wrote down your tips and tricks to keep in mind over the next week or so. Thank you!

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  8. I am amazed at what you have achieved! Your pants look great, but to be able to fit them yourself is truly awesome.

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  9. This is a really useful post so thanks. I also have a problem with waistbands that are too big, although looking at my bare waist in the mirror I simply cannot imagine why this would be so! I will try making it 1/2 inch smaller next time. And the straight rectangle into a curved waistband? Brilliant and simple. I feel another pair of pants coming on:)

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  10. Thank you! Fantastic post and fantastic pants!

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  11. great post, thanks for sharing all this info!

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  12. What a great resource - I'm definitely coming back to this when I delve into pants again! I'm especially excited to try getting a curved waistband from a darted rectangle.

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  13. Thank you for explaining how to get rid of the front crotch bagginess... I've had this on a couple of pants I've been pattern testing and haven't known the proper way to remove it... Now to decipher your diagram...

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  14. "stuck in dressing rooms when trying on skinny jeans" - that's me sister!

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  15. Thanks for putting this together Cindy! It's a great collection of tips and tricks.

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  16. This is honestly one of the most helpful informative and awesome blog post I've ever written. I've made several pairs of pants, but never really got it right. I think I might have to give it another go!

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  17. Cindy, you're so lovely and generous for sharing all this with us!! I've been following along your pants adventure with you eagerly, but it's really helpful to have a summary of all the key points. I've only tackled pants once and it wasn't a TOTAL disaster, but I want to try making a more tailored pair, and there are certainly a LOT of things I'll be doing differently on my next attempt, that's for sure!! :)

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  18. Great tips! I'm definitely thinking about trying pants now. My last trial run was a disaster, but I've learned a lot about fitting in the last few months so I think I'm ready to give it another go.

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  19. A lot of your notes sound like lessons I heard in Lynda Maynard's Craftsy class on fitting and Sandra Betzina's Craftsy class on pants. It's nice to see them all here together though, and all focused around pants. Plus, some of these lessons are new to me. Thanks for sharing!

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  20. I love this post - such great points! I hope more people begin to understand fitting as you are learning so well! Your pants pattern will serve you well for a long time!

    Now you understand why I love fitting a mockup more than altering the paper pattern first - it's so much easier to see something on a body and believe the shape of the pieces is right when it was fit in 3D. Mockups are meant to be drawn all over! =)

    Lots of costume shops keep stitch samples pinned to the walls for future reference - "how did we make that thing that one time?" My favorite wall is at a mascot place I've worked for because it is covered with interesting character eyes and unusual trial & error test samples. Reference samples are always good to keep around.

    ~ Brooke

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  21. beautiful beautiful pants! I'd love to be able to make a pair like these :) thanks for sharing all the info it's invaluable
    oh and I'm jealous that you could take classes with Linda Maynard :D

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  22. This is such a great list, I'm even pinning it for future reference! Your pants are amazing, and how great to have a pattern like this to make billions of pants from!

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  23. Wow! Thank you so much for this detailed post. I have bookmarked it for when I decide to make pants from scratch. Your look great and that gives me the courage to try :)

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  24. Brilliant round up of lessons, thanks so much!

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  25. Wow an amazing post - i'm on my first pair of pants and guess what having fitting issues!! so finding your post has been really helpful! thanks you :)

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  26. Once you get near the perfect fit, sewing pants (jeans specifically) is addicting, and crawling the internet for MORE, I ended up here (and on your muslin/pattern fit tute). Yes, I am more inspired to keep at it; I learn something new everyday and today, I learned a month's full. Thanks sooo much!

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  27. Such a great and helpful post... thank you! Currently tackling my first ever pair of trousers and coming across all sorts of problems re/ fit - your series on the subject has given me hope that I may be able to solve the problems!

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  28. I am always on the lookout for good articles on pant making and fitting, and yours is really good. Thanks for taking the time to articulate the process.

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  29. Thanks for writing about your pants class. I found it really informative!

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