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Member since 8/24/02
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Posted on: 3/11/09 9:59 AM ET
I'm working with a long ago self drafted pattern for trousers. I need to remove 1" from my crotch length in front and add 1" to my crotch depth. I know that when I'm adding to the crotch depth I do it on front and back, because crotch depth is from the waist to where the crotch sits on me. So I cut the pattern straight across to do the alteration. However, when it comes to removing the inch from the length in front (this is before I've added to the depth), I'm sort of stuck. (Old age sets in and one becomes fuzzy headed....)

Would doing a wedge, with 1" lengthened on the side seam and 2" overlapped on the front crotch seam work? Kind of like a dart rotation, but only overlapped at the crotch. I'm thinking it would but I need some input. Thank you!
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Member since 8/24/02
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Posted on: 3/11/09 5:15 PM ET
Gosh, give myself a few moments alone and I can figure it out. Oye Vey. I go ahead and do the crotch depth adjustment then take off the excess at the CF seam (based on Pants for Real People). But I'm curious now; would it still have worked the other way?
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Member since 5/19/06
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Posted on: 3/11/09 5:47 PM ET
Isn't that what you did when you tapered down to the lower CF?
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Fictionfan
  
Member since 8/24/02
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Posted on: 3/12/09 8:27 AM ET
In reply to Fictionfan
I was overthinking this one,and didn't look in my Pants for Real People, which has you remove the excess from CF at the top of the seam. Singer and the other books I have tell you to make a wedge in the CF crotch seam. So you can see where I was getting confused.
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Member since 12/28/04
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Posted on: 3/12/09 8:36 AM ET
In reply to Miss Fairchild
Ok. If you just remove it from the top of the front, you will have a wider waist, shorter darts etc. If you measure the waist before you do this and after you will find that it is longer after. If you do the wedge you avoid this issue. However, you are really shortening the length when you do this. The depth is the measurement that is usually taken from the waist to the seat of a chair when you are seated. The length has more to do with your body space and changing one changes the other. If you have a short front rise, low waist probably, then you need to lower the front waist, however you do it. Remember that every time you scoop out the front or back crotch you add to length of your crotch and you may have to lower the front again. It took me a long time to figure this one out!
Oh, one more tip. If you are using a waistband not a contour band that finishes at the waist, then you need to fit it so that the waist seamline is lower than your real waist by half the difference of the width of the waistband. Another trick that it took me years to find and why after you get the pants sewn you find that the crotch is too long.
-- Edited on 3/12/09 8:38 AM --
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Posted on: 3/12/09 9:04 AM ET
In reply to Nancy K
I think I kind of get what you mean. I had this epiphany this morning when I was thinking I needed to scoop out the crotch on this pair of pants I was wearing. Then I thought, wait, if keep doing that it gets longer...doh!

I was thinking that for the next pair I would attach the waistband lower, therefore raising up the crotch, but if you have a fly front, does that mess it up. Can you, when you are cutting them out, add to the crotch length to shorten it? I guess I think I may not need to shorten in the back (getting the middle age sag back there), but still need the shorter rise in the front.

I need to get out the Pants for Real People book, which I completely forgot I had.
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Posted on: 3/12/09 11:44 AM ET
In reply to Kim12469
I would take the pants that you have now, put them on and pin up a horizontal pleat to bring the waist into line. Then transfer the pleat, doubled to your pattern and fold it out. This way the waist won't become larger. The lower you attach the waistband the wider the waist becomes. If you only need the cf to be lower, than you'd slit across from center edge to side seam, and then a slit from the outside in, not cutting through, and then make a wedge shaped uptake.
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Posted on: 3/13/09 9:14 AM ET
In reply to Nancy K
Quote:
If you just remove it from the top of the front, you will have a wider waist, shorter darts etc.

I found this out while working. I found that I would have to lengthen my dart, and I didn't want to do this; I was taking off an inch, so that was a big alteration to me. I wasn't making a contour waistband, so I changed my thinking.

I checked some more resources, Fitting Finesse for example, and Nancy Zieman calls crotch depth, ''side curve'' which makes much better sense to me. Her example had me trace off the waist, make a mark on the side seam where I wanted to extend the side curve, pivot the waist, then trace it. Then I had to do the opposite for the crotch length. That rang a bell! (In a way, I was doing a wedge, like I previously thought) I also needed to add some length at the side seam, interestingly, the same amount I needed to add to my side curve, so as of this point, I'm set. I'll be sewing the muslin soon.

Thanks for the reminder about the waistband. I wasn't sure how much the waist seamline is lower than my real waist; I was figuring it was a seam allowance lower.
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