Sewing Pants for Women...Preparing the Pattern for Alteration Step 3. Part 4

Continuing with the Sewing Pants for Women by Else Tryoler.  Today, will we start with Step 3 of the seven giant steps to pants perfection:

Hip alterations

There are as many different humps and bumps to a pair of pants as there are women to walk around in them.  There is certainly no area more susceptible to poor fit than the hips if you attempt to squeeze all those varied contours into one pattern shape.  Might as well try to add apples and oranges or bananas and pears for that matter.

On your measurement chart you have all the information you need to personalize a pattern so that it will fit you and your particular terrain.

Pin the front and back pattern pieces together by matching the side seams at the hip-line.  (Remember those two pins at the fullest part of your hips, about seven or eight inches down?)  Take a look at Figure 7 to see what you should be doing.

Now comes a little math:  look up your hip measurement and add two inches for ease.  This represents the total hip circumference you will need in your pattern, but remember that the two pieces of your pattern represent only 1/2 your figure.  So, next divide your total hip circumference by two and you have the number of inches your pattern must measure to fit you.

Back to the pinned together pattern.  Measure from the center front (the X to the left on Figure 7) to the center back (the X to the right on Figure 7).  If the measurement is more than the number of inches you determined in the preceding paragraph, you will take half the difference out of the pattern Front and half the difference out of the pattern back.

This alteration is made on a vertical line, designated by the alteration line on the diagram, so that it will not disturb the side seam curve.  (Do not make the common mistake of adding only at the hips, because that will make the side seam ripple and cause great difficulty when it comes time to insert the zipper.)  An example:  if the pattern is 1-inch too large, fold out 1/2-inch in the front and 1/2-inch in the back.  Be sure to fold it out all the way from the waist to the hem as shown in Figure 7.  Similarly, if the pattern is too small by 1-inch, insert 1/2-inch in the front and 1/2-inch in the back.  You are now grading or sizing the pattern up or down a fraction of a size.

Remember your hip measurement is not all hip.  It also includes the seat and abdomen.  If your hips curve more than standard, add a little more at the side seams of the front and back to take care of the excess.  This is particularly  necessary when the hips are prominent.

If you have very straight hips, the curve at the side seams must be decreased in front and back. Be sure to decrease in equal amounts, however.  See dotted lines, Figure 8.

Always operate where your figure requires it.  Sometimes you grade or size only in the front, sometimes only in the back.  For example, you may need to add only a small amount to your hip measurement -- let's say 1/2-inch.  If you protrude more in the front over the abdomen than the standard figure, then insert only in the front.  Or perhaps your seat is standard plus --- or a prominent side.  Then insert only through the back portion.

Do the same grading if you want to make the pattern smaller.  For a figure with a flat abdomen, fold out a small amount in the front only, or do the same in back for a flat seat.

After you have made any of the alterations, ad have decreased or increased the width of your pattern pieces, remember to draw a new crease-line vertically through the exact center of the knee-line and parallel to the former crease-line.  The reason for this is that when inserting or decreasing the pattern piece, the crease-line moves over half the amount of the any change made.