Sewing Pants for Women...Preparing the Pattern for Alteration Step 7, Part 8

Continuing with the Sewing Pants for Women by Else Tryoler.  Today, will we start with Step 7 of the seven giant steps to pants perfection:

The Back Rise

What is the back rise, anyhow? When you look at the blueprint of a pair of pants, the back rise is your sitting room.  It is the extra bit of length built into the center back seam to give you the necessary leeway for sitting, bending, an walking.  No one can appreciate it more than the poor unfortunate who has heard that ominous rrrrip in public.

Therefore, if you are intent upon constructing a pair of pants primarily for action -- to wear for golf or bowling, or mountain climbing -- you will want to be sure that they have the necessary back rise to make such activities possible.  By the same token, if you desire pure chic and fashion, the amount of back rise will determine whether they do hang arrow-straight from the seat.  In either case, too much of a good thing is going to give you that dreary droop in the seat that has a way of making a pair of pants look tired.

Remember that you cannot always have comfort for activity and an extremely straight hang from the seat to hem.  More active sports usually call for Bermudas or pedal pushers, and a slight sag in the rear is not as noticeable in this length as it would be in the long, tapered pants.

Take your fabric into consideration, too.  A soft fabric with more give through the seat will require less rise.  Woolens and unlined knit fabric (or knits) need very little, and a stretch fabric needs no back rise at all.

It is difficult to determine just how much rise a pattern maker has built into his pattern.  When you cut a pair of pants from a pattern be sure to leave extra seam allowance.  That is, add 1-inch instead of the usual 5/8-inch to the center, waistline, and side seams in the back.  Add 1-inch allowance to front waistline only.  See Figure 23.  Broken lines indicate seam allowance.

The dismal results of too much back rise is a seat that droops and hangs down like the tail of a whipped puppy.  The fault cannot be corrected by taking up at the wait, nor is it associated with the length of the crotch.  If you find, at the first fitting of pants cut from a pattern, that this is the case (as in Figure 24), pin out the excess rise in a tuck across the seat at the hip line.  Starting at center and pinning tuck along hip-line, taper to nothing a the side seam.  You will transfer the same amount to tuck to the pattern by cutting the pattern along the hip-line, from the center back seam to side seam.  Then overlap the lower half over the upper half a the center back seam and taper to nothing at the side seam.  Reshape the crotch curve slightly, as shown by the broken line in Figure 25.  Also, use these directions for alterations on read-made pants. 

Having now adjusted the pattern to the exact amount of rise needed by you, rip the side seams of your garment down far enough to permit re-placing the pattern upon it, and re-mark to the new dimensions.  You see now why we warned to leave a little extra seam allowance when cutting from a pattern for the first time.

In altering a pair of ready-made pants for which you do not have a pattern, drop the waist the same amount that you pinned out across the seat a center.  See Figure 26.  The broken line is the former stitching line.  The side and the center seam mover over and assume a new position.  See solid line.

How do you know how much back rise to eliminate?  For long, glamorous pants that look their best when hanging in a die-straight line below the seat, a shorter back rise is required.  Take out 1/2-inch to 1-inch by cutting the pattern from the center back seam along the hip-line from center back to side seam.  Overlap the correct amount at the center, taper to nothing at side seam.  Adjust the crotch curve as in Figure 25.

Pants intended for more strenuous sports need more rise for movement.  Cut across the hip-line from center back to side seam, and pin pattern to an insert about 1/2-inch wide at the center seam, tapering to nothing at the side seam.  Adjust the crotch seam as in Figure 27. 

Modern pants need a deeper curve than patterns and ready-made pants allow.  The curve must be deepened on a pattern or pinned in on ready-made pants.  For a cupped-in look, the curve must be fitted deeply, and a small amount tapered off the crotch point in back.  See "Crotch Width Alteration", Figures 12 and 13 in Sewing Pants for Women...Preparing the Pattern for Alteration Step 4, Part 5.  These alternations apply to the back ONLY.  They will not work on the front.

Question:  What is your thought on this method of altering the back rise?  Have you tried it?  Did it work for you?

I stumbled upon this alteration accidentally when I was taking a pant drafting class.  It was the only way I could get the wrinkles under the butt to disappear.  The teacher told me that it was an incorrect alteration.  However, the next iteration of the class did indeed show that alteration. 

Next will be sewing instructions for the perfect fit.

Happy Stitching!