Here's a pants alteration that I've found to be the best for my maturing pear-shaped figure. It alleviates those dreaded diagonal wrinkles on the back of the thigh. It turns out that these wrinkles are caused by the centre back seam of the pants being at too much of an angle. Standing with the legs farther apart gets rid of the wrinkles, but is a pose best left to the gunslingers in old Western movies. A wide-hipped person who wants to stand with feet at a more natural, feet together, stance needs to change the angle that the legs hang from. Here's how to do it:
Step One: Mark a horizontal line from the crotch point, and a diagonal line from the point this line crosses the grain line to a point on the centre back curve. This is like Ann Rowley's flat seat adjustment except that the dart will be unchanged.
Step Two: Cut along the horizontal line and fold along the diagonal line by the desired amount of adjustment (1/2" in my example). Tape the pieces back in place.
Step Three: extend the grain line from below, replace some of the lost length at the top of the centre back seam, and draw the dart.
Sew the pants and check the fit to see if it's like this. If not, you may need more or less of an adjustment. |
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That's a really well done demonstration and explanation. The pants look to have a great fit afterwards.
7/18/10 7:51 PM
I have this problem and do a different alteration that does the same thing, but I like your method better. Your method removes just a wee bit under the buns which is where I have fabric baggage that I don't need. Will give this a try. Thank you for the excellent pictures/tutorial.
7/19/10 7:20 AM
Great tip and tutorial, thanks.
7/19/10 8:16 AM
I have the same look to the back of my pants that you have in the first shot. I have always had a very rounded rear. I suppose over the years the rounded has dropped while I wasn't looking. This may work for me. Thanks you for the great tip and tutorial. I will give it a try.
7/19/10 9:25 AM
Great tutorial
7/20/10 4:10 AM
How do you find the tutorial? Am new to pr still trying to navigate:)
11/26/11 4:18 PM