StyleArc Claudia Pants: The Fitting Continues

Well this is getting interesting...

Remember this altered pattern, which I lengthened by 3/8" at the top and to which I added fabric to the crotch curve and inner thigh?

Left pieces are the front of the pants, right piece is the back...

Well, I spent a while basting the shell together, to see what would come of it and here's what I discovered (other than, man - they were way too big just about everywhere):

The fabric shows my first iteration of the altered pattern, discussed in the previous post linked to above. The paper shows the new alterations on the basis of what I learned having basted the first iteration, cut fabric together.

Just to complicate things visually, in this pic, the left piece is the back of the pants and the right pieces are the front. The pattern has been altered to reflect the changes I believe are required having tried on the basted muslin for fit.

Important note: Ordinarily, I would start with new fabric because I shortened the crotch from the midpoint of the crotch curve, where that flap of fabric is now, and the back piece (having a hem dart) from below the knee. Alas, one cannot do that with one's already cut fabric, so I'm shortening this muslin from the top and bottom of the pattern. Because I have SO much excess fabric, I can do this (though we don't know if it will have unknown impacts re: grain). I suspect not, given the lengthwise and widthwise stretch of this fabric, but I do think it bears mention.

This round of alterations:

• Adding 3/8" of fabric at the waist wasn't a bad idea - but I did need to remove 1.25" of depth in the crotch all around.

• Shortened the length of the pants, below the knee, by 2 inches. I guess my legs are really not that long...

• When I shortened the front curve, it made almost NO difference to the line of the front crotch because that front curve is practically flat almost to the base. I did have to take some width out of the hip (probably that extra inch I added in when I altered the original pattern per my denim leggings pattern) and a bit out of the inner and outer legs. BTW, I sense that the front curve looks like that because of the relative fullness of my abdomen.

• The back piece got most of the attention... That little wedge of paper taped on top of the piece is the amount I had to remove from the previously altered back crotch curve once I shortened the rise (as I trued the pattern piece to reflect the new rise). If you look at the top photo (the one showing my starting point before this round of alterations) you'll observe that what I've done, essentially, is return the curve to that of the original pattern by removing a lot of the extra width I added into the primary alteration of this crotch curve (on the basis of what I learned the last time I made stretch woven pants (denim leggings)). My point is, all I've really done to alter this pattern is shorten the crotch curve by 1.25 inches and add about an inch of extra fabric to the inner thigh (from the back piece). Oh, and shorten the legs below the knee.

• Less notably, I also had to remove a reasonable amount of width from the hip and leg on the back piece...

What actually fit right out of the envelope? Well, the proportion was almost smack on for my body, which you can more or less discern by looking at the newly altered pieces atop the, as-yet unaltered cut fabric. The waist height, once I addressed the crotch depth, was almost perfect. The darts were a good width, as drawn. The waist fit almost perfectly.

Even though, when I tried on the basted muslin, I might have called it a disaster, on 5 minutes of reflection, this was fairly easy to improve.

Now let's see how the next version works. This time I'm actually going to sew.