Well, I seem not to have evoked too much wrath or envy in my new fancy pants. There were a few fit questions. How about we start with hips?
If you look closely, my jeans do make what I have learned are called "whiskers." Yes, that's what those lovely little wrinkles that point at the crotch of us full-hipped women are called. And my extensive archival research (i.e. I saw this book in with hubby's stuff) shows that while this term is recent, the phenomenon reaches back to the early history of dames wearing jeans.
Yes, even female juvenile delinquents in the 1950's were prone to "whiskers." (BTW, isn't this outfit rather, err, sweet, for a delinquent?)
Comprehensive research (i.e. I read somewhere that horizontal wrinkles point to areas without enough width) determined the cause: my pants are a bit too tight at that particular latitude.
Okay, I knew I could make the pants bigger there, but I didn't quite know how to add some width in exactly the right contour. Also, I was feeling lazy and, to be honest, those books on making pants fit make me feel tired. I thought, what would a person with a tool belt do to figure out how to match a complex curve? Take a ton of measurements and fiddle around with a pattern? Oh no, s/he would grab a contour duplication gauge and just copy it. Of course that might not work so well on my larger, squishier curves. Then I had a great idea, maybe a flexible ruler would do the trick.
I pressed my flexible ruler on my hips, laid it on the pattern, saw the problem, and took a crappy photo. No measuring, slashing spreading or french curves needed; it was almost disappointingly easy.
And, the flexible ruler is the gift that keeps giving because it provided the solution too. I just added some tracing paper there and redrew the curve. Guess what? Anyone can do this in the privacy of their own home!
It seems too easy so I when I make these up, I am going to baste that seam and then adjust the fit. Because we are in the hypothesis testing phase here, and need extensive experimentation.
Reader's what do you think, will you help me test my technique?
P.S. Stayed tuned for the next installment: adjust for a gaping back waist.
