April 24, 2014

FOR THOSE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED...

...I wanted to post Gwen’s entire email where she gave me advice on eliminating the diagonal front wrinkling that plagued my pants fitting.  To my dismay – I cannot find the email.  I must have deleted it!  I can’t believe it got deleted because I save everything.  No problem though, I can share the information from memory because I use it regularly.  I’ll also point you to some other wrinkle eliminating information that might also be helpful.
My diagonal wrinkling problems radiate from the front crouch area below the fly zipper up to side seams. 
  •  In this picture you can see where I folded out and pinned the excess that causes the wrinkling (wish I had taken a picture before I folded and pinned).
  • I pinned from the crouch area, starting just below the zipper, and tapered up to nothing at the side seam/slant pocket area. I started pinning below the zipper because I did not want to alter the zipper length; and tapered to nothing at the slant pocket/side seams for the same reason – I did not want to alter the length of the pocket opening.  


  • In this picture the right side is still pinned, but on the left I’ve stitched the excess up into a long diagonal dart  
  • I measured the amount pinned out in the muslin and transferred the same alteration to the front pattern piece.  This has made a tremendous difference in the fit of this pattern for me.
I think my wrinkles indicate that my pattern’s front crouch length is too long – just guessing here because as you know – I am no expert.

Gwen’s advice also convinced me to purchase Palmer & Pletsch’s book “Pants for Real People” that I had been reluctant to buy before that time.  If you have the book, I’d like to direct your attention to page 31 (bagginess in the back).  Although this section speaks about problems with the back pattern piece, it can also be applied to problems with bagginess in the front.   Page 54 (chalk-mark stitching lines) refers to chalk marking an adjustment made at the waistline; and (the waistband) is also helpful.
P.S.  Although tissue fitting is shown in the book – I NEVER pin fit – I’m a muslin girl (just my personal preference).  I’m afraid that I will tear and destroy the pattern; I always work with muslins instead.  Hope you find this helpful…

12 comments:

  1. Pants are just so tricky - and you get them right and the body changes again! These look good, Faye.

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  2. P.S - the tissue is so fragile I can't see how anyone can pin fit it. And it still would not work as well as a muslin, only give a very rough guide.

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  3. Great information Faye and good luck with your pants!

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  4. Pants are challenging, don't give up. If you get a fit that is acceptable work with that and then slowly tweak the fit of next pants you make until you get something that is acceptable.

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  5. I want to bury my head when it comes to fitting, and pants are not exception. The tissue fitting seems like a good preliminary step, but I haven't had much luck. I may have to get th pant fitting. I do have the general fitting book from the series.

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  6. just made a pair that could've benefitted from this dart! next go 'round...

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  7. Thanks for this Faye. My pant fitting problem is a vertical fold just above the crotch. This has only happened on silhouette patterns .Does the book cover that fitting problem?

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  8. Thanks for this info...I continue to get closer to an acceptable fit with help from other bloggers-like you!

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  9. Thanks for the information. I have the P&P pants dvd and never thought to use that technique for the front. I tissue fit and prior to pinning the pattern pieces, I tape all the edges.

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  10. Very helpful info. After all my many years of sewing, MANY! I should work on making a pair of pants that fit. I have Pants for Real People and a Craftsy class on pant fitting with Sandra Betzina. One day in 2014 I will do this.

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    1. I believe that you will do it too!

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  11. Thank you so much for posting this. This will help me double check the pants muslin that I'm working on this weekend.

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