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The following tips are compiled from Pants Can Fit by Kathleen Spike, Copyright 1996.
The seven points to make a pant fit well:
In order to fit a pair of pants, you have to SEE what changes need to be made. If you don't know what to look for, how can you even alter the pant?
Step #1
Good fit and style is comfortable at the waist. If your waist is 30", the pant band when finished is 32". Allow yourself at least 2" of ease. Wear a belt to finish your look and secure the pant band.
Step #2
Create a skirted-front on a trouser, full-legged
pant and even a slim-legged pant. What is a skirted-front? You
add enough onto the front inseam of the pant so the pant hangs
straight down over the thigh, almost (but not quite) like a
skirt. When I finally figured this out, my pants started looking
comfortable and sophisticated. See
illustration #22 and photo 4 & 5 from Pants Can
Fit book.
Step #3
Crotch Depth and Length
Most instructors tell you to get the crotch depth high in the front and then you spend the rest of you life "reworking" the back of the pant. The higher the crotch in the front, the more problems you create in the back of the pant. Drop the pant down lower in the front, give the pant a skirted front, and you have just eliminated about 80% of your fit problems in the back of the pant.
Step #4
Allow enough front thigh width room. Thighs can take up so much room they will pull the pleats apart on the front of the pant. Add onto the side seam at the thigh and the front inseam at the same time for thigh width.
Step #5
Do you have a pant that fits great in the scat, yet when you sit down they pull down at the center back? The problem is not in the back, it is now in the front. You need to add more skirted front (add onto the inseam again) on the front of the pant so you have enough room for the thigh when you sit down. See illustrations in book and above under Step #2.
Step # 6
Waistline Slant
For a woman with a full tummy and a full bust, even for slimmer bodies, if the waistline of the pant fits high in the back and down below the waist in the front, you will have comfort.
Step #7
Great Fabrics. Silk matka, wool crepe, superfine wool gabardine, rayon, silk faille, polyester file, micro-fiber, tencel, 4,6,8, ply silk, real linen and blends of all of the above will create a pant worth sewing. However, make several pair of pants, perfect the seven points, before you sew with your precious pieces.
You can see these seven points in Pants Can Fit by Kathleen Spike.
Other seminars online by Kathleen Spike:
10 Traits of an Organized Wardrobe
Wardrobe Tips: "10 THINGS TO GET RID OF RIGHT NOW and WRITE IT DOWN!
More information on Coaching Works and Kathleen Spike
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