Trouser fitting

I haven’t blogged very much recently because I have been busy with work, but I have at least been finding time to sew. I find it sew (ha!) relaxing to do and I use it to refresh and unwind.

One of my long-term projects is to figure out how to get a trouser pattern to fit to my body shape. I’ve sewn a few trousers now and none of them have been quite right, most often they are tight at the front thigh when I bend my leg. Here are the patterns I’ve made so far:

• Pyjamas. These were the first trousers that I made, and being made from a jersey fabric and loose fitting, I had no trouble at all with the fit, they are super comfy.
• Burda style ‘pants’ sewalong. I really enjoyed making these because it had a fun sewalong set of videos and I liked the cropped pattern style, but they went quite wrong. I made them out of a white courdroy which was quite transparent! But the fit was also very bad, they sat too low on my hips so felt like they were going to fall off, and they were tight in the thigh.
• Strides. This pattern from the Merchant & Mills Workbook was great, I loved making these and the denim fabric worked surprisingly well. I thought the fit was pretty good but there was stretch in the fabric so I couldn’t be 100% sure. They were a bit tight in the waist and so I ended up loosening the waistband a bit. I have also made another pair of these recently, but in a non-stretch cotton twill (I’ll post about it soon), and it’s made me realise that although the fit in the front is quite good the back is terrible – there is loads of bagging underneath my bottom. These trousers also snag on my upper thigh when moving about or sitting down.
• Tania Culottes. These are culottes, I’m not sure if they count as trousers but I’m including them anyway. It’s really hard to know whether they fit perfectly simply because they are so loose, but they are really comfortable to wear.
• Sewing Bee Sustainable Style Jumpsuit. I really love this but the shorts aren’t a good fit, when I bend my leg they try to cut into my thigh. I tend to fold them up so they are mini-length which helps a bit.
• Safiya Trousers. These are nice to wear, they are a loose fit with an elasticated waistand and I wore them a lot in the summer, but again I have the issue with the front pulling on my thigh when I bend my leg.
• Ginger jeans. These are probably my most successful in terms of fit, but they are supposed to be tight and the fabric has quite a lot of stretch so it’s hard to judge.

I then watched the series of videos by Sarah Veblem on Threads all about ‘Pants’ fitting, and in that she does a really interesting comparison of the different crotch curve shapes and how well they fit different body shapes. It made me realise that almost all of the trousers I’d made had a very similar crotch curve shape in the back, which is sort of at an angle rather than a J shape. She also had a great suggestion that you mark your grainline, horizontal lines etc. on the fabric before assembly so that you can easily see if the pattern is twisting or pulling.

This led me to think perhaps I needed to make a trouser sloper, and I decided to do the SewHere Made to Measure Leggings course. It guides you through creating your own leggings pattern from taking measurements, and the shape of the crotch curve is more J shaped so I was interested to see how it fit me. It’s not a sloper per-se, but I thought I could turn it into one with a bit of tweaking. I’m pleased to report that the leggings fit me really well (I’ll post about them soon).

My next trouser experiment is going to involve modifying the leggings pattern to make it a standard trouser pattern. I need to figure out where to add ease etc. and once that’s ready I’ll try making some trousers in a geometric pattern so I can visually assess the fit and where it’s pulling. Wish me luck!