Pants Fitting Part 1------Pic Heavy

You ever had one of those week where you know you've been working hard but haven't had much to show for it. Well that's where I've found myself. In the midst of the usual everyday craziness and preparing my tax package for my CPA (which is a little more involved when you have a business) etc, etc, I've been doing alot of fittings and sewing. But despite not having any finished garments for this week just yet--I still have 2 days to go--- I feel that I've made good progress on at least one of the 2 garments I'm working on.

I've been working on the Jalie 2909 Trouser pattern. I made it straight out of the envelope just to see what types of adjustments I would need to make. I had a feeling that it would fit pretty ok since I compared the pattern pieces to a pair of RTW-white-striped- fitted Lerner of New York Capri's that I deconstructed after they were unfortunately ruined when they were washed with a red shirt. I loved the fit of these Capri's and although they were ruined I promised to preserve their memory by converting them into a pattern and remaking them.

 

I actually wore the Jalie trousers in the picture that I took with the New Look pattern I made on last week. I had hoped to have them finished then but they needed a little more work.

  

 From the front, the fit was pretty decent but after really studying it against some of my RTW pants that fit me very well I noticed that the crotch depth and length was way too long for me. I need to take out between 1" and 1.5" and that should eleviate the horizontal wrinkles.

 

The back was where most of the issue really were obvious. After comparing this pattern with my Lerner's deconstructed pair I realized that the Back crotch needed to be a tad bit higher for me and longer in comparison to the front. This makes sense for me because I actually have (which isn't very evident in this pic) what my Mom used to call a "high butt". My waist sits lower in the front then in the back.

 (Here's a pic of my Lerner NY pants on top of my traced Jalie pattern for comparison purposes)

 (Front crotch curve of both. Notice the longer crotch depth and length in the Jalie pattern compared to my Lerner pair.)

(Notice the inverse with the back crotch point. The back crotch is higher in my Lerner paints.)

I think once I adjust the back, as well as front, crotch curves, I'll be able to pull my pants up over my derierre thus eliminating some of those back leg wrinkles. The rest I believe I can get rid of by narrowing the pants leg a tad bit. Just to make sure my fitting ideas were on point I re-made the Lerner's pants and they fit very good except for the fact that they were super tight since using a stretch woven with a lot less stretch then the original pair.

At the same time I've been studying alot of textbooks on the subject of pants fitting. When trying to learn about something, I like to do it in a manner that's very thorough and exact. That just stems from my career in the research sciences. I'm a bit of a book work. Trust me, I've been avoiding making pants (and have been slightly intimidated by the notion) for a long time but now I'm intrigued by the very thought and motivated like never before. I'm really having fun with all of this.

I had some pretty good resources in my library to pull from. Here's a few of my books and dvd's I've been using.

I'm also tempted to draft my own pattern based on my measurements as well. Doing so will allow me to understand the contours of the pattern as well as my body even more. If I do, I'll more than likely use Elizabeth Allemong's book European cut (pictured above) --which have the instructions to draft patterns with more of an European fit instead of an American one--you know like Burda patterns--(and we all know how well they tend to fit).  Fitting pants can be an interesting task especially when dealing with different body types. It's my dream to learn to fit pants really well so I can offer to make them for my clients.

In addition to Jalie 2909 I'm working on the McCall's ----- Boyfriend jacket. I didn't have any lining I liked in my stash for this project so I picked this up at JoAnn's the other day.

I love it--but I love most paisleys. But can you believe I'm having second thoughts about using the 14 wale chocolate brown corduroy for this project? I watched the movie "Love Happens"--with Jennifers Aniston-- the other day and saw her in the cutest denim coat with a peplum--similar to the Boyfriend's jacket. So I'm feeling a little torn. I'm sure I'll be able to decide once I've worked out the fitting issues.

Well that's enough for now. I'm back to fitting and sewing. One last request though. If you know of or have any other Pant Fitting books that you think are great please let me know so I can check them out! Of course any tips or observations are appreciated as well:)