What I wouldn't give for a well fitting pair of pants, a pair that doesn't require constant tugging at the belt loops (despite wearing a belt) to prevent the waistband of my medium rise pants from slipping half way down my rear and simultaneously thwart the crotch seam's attempt to migrate down to my knees. I live my life in pants and I spend it constantly tugging and pulling and readjusting. Sitting down is the worst thing ever, it requires holding on to the waistband while descending, if I don't do this the waistband slips down and once seated the crotch seam will have migrated 2 inches down from were it should be leaving me with all this fabric just stretched out across across my lap. It's not a pretty picture but it is what it is. With that being said I set about to make my first real pair of pants, well at least a muslin.
The pattern: Simplicity 3850, View A. In retrospect perhaps this style wasn't best suited for my figure, but I loved a lot of the project photos that reviewers had posted on pattern review...I just couldn't help myself.
The pants came together fairly easily, some issues with the fly front zipper but I stuck with it and eventually I got it.I finished them about a week ago and was admiring them in the mirror, I acknowledged that there were some flaws but that is what a muslin is for right? Then I saw the pictures and my bubble burst.Every wrinkle, every flaw hit me at once. I have front crotch wrinkles, under-butt wrinkles, extra fabric pooling right above my butt and very little clue as to where to begin fixing these flaws.And the crotch seam, don't get me started on the crotch seam, I hate the crotch seam.
Still I am determined to find my fit, from what I've gathered there are a few possible alterations I could make.
The first one being a full front thigh adjustment, what can I say? I have muscular thighs that will come in handy when the zombie apocalypse eventually comes. As you can see in the diagram below, the front of my thigh extends past the crotch line which could possibly lead to pulling and whatnot in the front.
The second adjustment I've been pondering is a full inner thigh adjustment. I'm leaning towards this one, I know that much of my RTW pant frustration stems from the fact that I have to buy pants to fit my thighs.Perhaps the wrinkles pictured below have been caused by my fabric stealing inner thighs. Unfortunately I just don't know, and there is only so much internet research I can do before getting all head-achy.
So that is were I am, I'm planning on purchasing Pants for Real People: Fit and Sew for Any Body by Palmer and Alto in the next few days and I will continue my horrible new habit of glancing at the crotches of strangers to see what wrinkles and imperfections they have until the book arrives.
I know won't be able to achieve perfect pants right away but I'm willing to invest some serious time and effort into, because if I leave it up to RTW, I will be 80 years old with my crotch seam hanging down around my calves.
