Date: 7/3/09 5:56 PM

Help! I produced a muslin in a pattern-making class but neither I nor the tutor could figure out why I have tension wrinkles radiating from crotch to mid-thigh and subsequently that he crotch doesn't lie flat against body. This is emphasised when I bend at the knees and the front crotch pulls right off the body and the wrinkles extend half-way to the knee.
This is improved slightly when I pull up the trousers at the waist - but doesn't disappear. I also tried letting out the side seams at the thighs - but this makes no difference at all.
Does anyone have any ideas?

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Reply to SVN
Date: 7/3/09 6:35 PM

Making a guess here....Is there a roundness or pronounced muscular development in the front of your thigh? If you analyze your figure looking from the side, does the thigh appear rounded and does there appear to be an indentation at crotch level above the thigh and below the abdomen? Does the crotch area on the front of the muslin almost seem like a trampoline - fabric stretched tight across the front without actually touching your body near the pubic bone?

I'll let you answer the questions before I bore you with changes to try. No sense in suggesting alterations you don't need!

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“Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.” -Robert Heinlein and Ann's father. Thanks for the reminder, Ann.

Where are we going, and what am I doing in this handbasket?

Matthew 25:40 (New International Version)
The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

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Reply to Karla Kizer
Date: 7/4/09 6:22 AM

Karla - thanks so much for your post. The answer is a definite YES - I am a cyclist and lift weights once a week - so I'm pretty skinny but with significant roundness in the top (front) thigh as you describe. I should also add that I get this problem with RTW, too. And YES, the fabric is exactly like a trampoline that stretches tight without touching my body nr. the pubic bone.
I eagerly await your suggested changes!! Thanks again for your reply.
Sarah

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Reply to SVN
Date: 7/4/09 3:47 PM

The crotch curve is not the same shape as your body and it pulls because it is too tight in that exact area. I have the same problem off and on. I had good luck by changing the curve in the area where the wrinkles are pointing as illustrated here. These pants were not tight so it was not very pronounced; the tighter they are the worse it becomes.

On the pattern I changed, compare the before and the after.

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Reply to SVN
Date: 7/5/09 7:51 AM

I'm not Karla either, but it seems to me that your muscular thighs are "borrowing" fabric from the fron crotch area. So some kind of full front thigh adjustment might be needed.

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Date: 7/5/09 8:12 AM

Els shows a good pattern alteration for full front thighs here.

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Liz

thefittinglife.blogspot.com

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Date: 7/7/09 11:59 AM

Thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions.
My pattern-cutting tutor also thought the crotch curve was wrong and this is where we concentrated our adjustment efforts - this helped, but unfortunately isn't the whole solution in this case.
The front thigh adjustment is a neat idea - I'd like to give this a try... do any of you know what the crease line is that is referred to in the diagram in the helpul web link you sent?
I did try slitting my muslin from the top of the thigh to above the knee to release the tension, but couldn't really tell if it was doing the job. Should it be really obvious if it is?
Again, all your thougts much appreciated!! Thanks for taking the time to respond -
S

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Reply to SVN
Date: 7/7/09 7:45 PM

I'm not ignoring you, I promise! I'm trying to come up with a diagram of the changes I make for my daughter - something that I can scan in so you can see it. What I do isn't terribly different from Els' tutorial that you were directed to in another post, so why I feel the need to re-invent the wheel, I don't know.

Again - sorry for the delay.

------
“Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.” -Robert Heinlein and Ann's father. Thanks for the reminder, Ann.

Where are we going, and what am I doing in this handbasket?

Matthew 25:40 (New International Version)
The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

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Reply to Karla Kizer
Date: 7/8/09 5:13 AM

It's really good of you to go to all that effort, Karla. Much appreciated!!

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Reply to Kay Y
Date: 7/9/09 2:11 PM

Quote: Kay Y

I had good luck by changing the curve in the area where the wrinkles are pointing as illustrated here.

Kay, it isn't clear to me from your front pattern piece if you sewed a deeper or a shallower seam. It looks like you made it deeper, but that seems like it would just make that area even tighter across the fronts of your thighs.

------
Dorothy

"Mr Shepherd, ye cannot stop a bad thought from coming into your head. But ye need not pull up a chair and bide it sit down."

Violet Brown in Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna

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