How to adjust and fit your (jeans)pants!

You are my hero! You made a pair of pants. The project that most seamstresses dread. How often do you hear … oh I’m not going to make trousers, they’re never fit! There is truth in that,  one woman isn’t the other. Our lower bodies are precisely the place where all the feminine curves are. Knees, hips, buttocks, belly, calves and then you should also be able to bend when wearing your trousers!!!!!  But the fact that you have arrived at this article means that you are a hero and did it, but something is not quite right yet. And the pants have not quite turned out what you had hoped for. Well, don’t be afraid. I think that almost every seamstress who sews pants has something that needs to be adjusted. But, together we will be coming a long way. Some things we can adjust immediately and for some things the pattern has to be changed.

1 thing first. Do you have a new pants pattern that you haven’t made before? First, take it from a piece of cheap fabric. We call that making a toile. A test model. This way you get to know your pattern and you know how the pattern fits your body.

Below I’m going to cover the most common things that could be changed.

 Waist and Hip width fitting.

 1 The pants are too wide at the waist, at the back on the centre back crotch seam, but otherwise, around the thighs the pants are good!

Then you only have to adjust the back of the pants. Pull the pants inside out and put them on, pull the waistband tightly to the back, and pin it double.  Go down a bit with your hands and each time take the space you feel and put a pin in it until you run out of space. Take off the pants. Look at how much space you’ve taken on the centre-back seam. Dived evenly between the left and right seam. And put the pins neatly in the fabric and form a nice flowing new centre-back crotch seam. It helps if you first flatten the pressed seams before you start stitching. Stitch the new seam and put the pants on again. Are the pants right? Then you cut away the excess fabric, making sure that there is again a neatly 1.2 cm seam allowance at the centre back crotch seam. Do not throw away the cut fabric, because you still need this to readjust it on your pattern. Remove unnecessary stitching, zigzag or overlock again. And restore all seams as they were.

The fabric part that you have cut off is drawn over on your paper pattern. Et voilà you’ve also adjusted your pattern for the next time you use it.

2 The waist is too wide, but the pants are too wide at the hips and legs as well!

Put the pants on, inside out. And pin the side seams to the desired width. (It’s very nice if someone else pins the pants for you because it is hard to do it yourself) Do the same on the right side every time you pin on the left. Do not pin everything too tight, because you also have to be able to sit. Over the entire contour of the pants, you need to keep about 4cm of width(called ease). I hear you thinking! How are you supposed to know that when you have the pants on? The trick is, if you grab the pants on the side seams, you can move them around your body, to the left and to the right and turn a little. Is it working? Then take the pants off. Look at how much space you’ve taken on the side seams and measure that both side seams are equal. Have you pinned 1 centimetre away on the left and 2 centimetres on the right? Then pin both side seams 1.5 centimetres. Place the pins neatly in the fabric and form a nice flowing new side seam. It helps if you first flatten the pressed seams before you start stitching. Stitch the seams and pull on the pants again. Are the pants good, even if you sit down? If you can’t sit down, you’ve made it too tight. Are they good? Then you cut away the excess fabric and make sure that there is again a neatly 1.2 cm seam allowance at the side seams. Do not throw away the cut fabric, because you still need this to redraw your pattern. Remove unnecessary stitching, zigzag or overlock again. And restore all seams as they were. Transfer the cut fabric to your pattern. Put it on top and draw it onto your pattern. And done again. Pattern adjusted.

3 The waist of the pants is too tight, but the hips and upper legs of the pants are good!

You have three places where you can make the pants wider. (Provided you’ve done what we recommend in the instructions, which is to not make any cuts until you’ve fitted the pants.) Namely the side seams and centre back. You have sewn a seam allowance of 1.2 cm and you are now going to sew these seams again, but with a seam allowance of 0.5 cm. This means that your waist can be 4.2 cm wider. It helps if you first flatten the pressed seams before you start stitching. If you sew the new seams, make sure that you come back smoothly to the old stitching. Do not do this abruptly, because you will see it in the side seam of your pants on the outside, it will bubble out. First, stitch the new side seam and only then remove the old stitching. Press out the old seam with a lot of steam. If you still see some holes from the old stitching … use your nails to softly scratch the threads back in their old position and press again with steam.

4 The waist of the pants is too tight and so are the thighs and hips.

You have again three places where you can make the pants wider. Namely the side seams and centre back. You have sewn a seam allowance of 1.2 cm and you are now going to sew these seams again, but with a seam allowance of 0.5 cm. This means that your waist can be 4.2 cm wider. That sounds like not much, but that’s almost a size bigger. The thighs can be 1.4 cm wider. If you sew the new side seams, sew them preferably to the hem, but at least to knee height. First, stitch the new side seam and only then take out the old one. Press out the old seam with a lot of steam. If the pants are still a bit too tight around the thighs, you can also sew the inner leg seam again with a 0.5cm seam allowance. There you also have to remove a piece of the crotch seam right at the bottom centre, because otherwise, you can not sew the inner leg seam again. After you’re done, reassemble it like it was before. If you don’t know how it was before. Get the instructions, that’s what they are for .

5 Do you already know that you always have certain problems?  Then make the adjustments right on the pattern!

Wrinkle lines/Stress lines in your pants often point directly to the problem, but how do you translate them? 

These wrinkle lines are discussed 1 at a time.

As a general rule, unwanted lines always point to the problem  Some lines are there for a reason. To give you some room to sit or bend your knees.

6 Cross too high and too tight.

A cross that is too high and too tight is difficult to adjust.  After all, you can’t just stick a piece on it but there is a way to improve it. Your centre back crotch seam is a curve. If you make that curve deeper, the centre back crotch seam becomes longer. It seems as if you are taking in the centre back crotch seam. To a certain extent, you do. That is why you also have to widen the side seams at the level of the hip, see on the next drawing the green lines are your new stitchings. The centre-back crotch seam your deepening, and the curve becomes longer. You make the hip seam 0.5cm and the inner leg seam also becomes 0.5 cm. To be able to stitch the inner leg seam again, you will first have to loosen the crotch seam. Then steam and iron out the old seams and stitch the crotch seam again.

You see this is a lot of work and only provides a little space. That is why it is important that before you start sewing, take a good look at the sizes and take your body’s own measurements. Now the whole pants fit well, but if it is only the crotch length that does not fit, you will see a line running on the pattern from the side seam to the centre back crotch seam. Cut this line and place the two parts 1 to 2 cm apart. Do this also at the front leg. This is exactly why it is important to make a toile first. (toile is a try-out version of the clothing you want to make)

7. Cross too low and too wide.

The folds/wrinkles point to the cross and down. You can also feel the crotch seam hanging lower between your legs. Especially when you start walking, it feels like you are being stopped. You solve this by taking out the inner leg seam of the back of your pants, from the crotch to knee height. That means you have to loosen a piece of your crotch seam and then you have to take out your inner leg seam up to the knee. Your pants are now separate from each other again. Now you are going to make the tip at the top less of a point from the back leg. See drawing. You do not place the back leg panel equal to the front leg panel, but you put the back leg panel 2 to 3 cm over the front leg panel. And slowly reduce this and when you get at the knee height both panels are equal to one another. See drawing.

No more than 3cm, because then you get an imbalance in the pants. If the 2 to 3 cm is not sufficient, you also take a piece of the crotch from the front leg. Preferably not, but it can be done a bit. Stitch the inner leg seam and then stitch the crotch seam again. Try on the pants. If the pants are good, don’t forget to incorporate the change you’ve made into your pattern.

8 Pants too tight at the hips

If the pants are too tight on the hips, you have three places where you can adjust the pants.

Namely on the side seams and middle rear stitch again with 0.5cm seam surcharge. You eventually have to make the stitching come out with a smooth beautiful line on the old stitching.

9 Pants too tight around the thighs.

If the pants are too tight around the thighs, you have two seams to make the pants more spacious around the thighs. Namely the side seam and the inner leg seam. With these two seams, you can make the pants around the thighs 2.8 cm wider. Quite a lot. How? See drawing. You eventually have to make the stitching come out nicely with a smooth line on the old stitching.

10 Cross is way too low.

Sometimes it’s just that the cross is way too low. You stand in front of the mirror and think if I flip the waistband then the pants are just right. Yep, then there is really only 1 solution. Remove the waistband and cut off 2 to 2.5 cm at the top of both the front leg and the back leg. Make sure you backstitch all the seams you’ve cut so they don’t come loose in wearing. Then put the waistband back on the pants. Note: cut no more than 2 to 2.5 cm from the top. If you cut more of the top, the pants will become unbalanced. If more is needed, you can combine this adjustment with adjustment 7.

11 Very full belly.

this can’t really be captured in a picture but means that a large part of your belly rises above the pants, and you cannot get the pants closed properly. That can’t be fitted, and you have to change your pattern in advance. On the pattern, you can see a line running with scissors.

In the middle of that line, draw a perpendicular line to the waistband and draw a line down to the centre at knee height. See the picture below.

Cut the green lines and lay down your pattern as the picture below indicates. Measure the dimensions of the front of the original pattern and measure the belly circumference of your body from its side seam to the other side seam. The difference between the two is the adjustment you need to make divided by two. (After all, you will soon cut and sew two front panels)

Draw a new waistline, centre front and side seam. See green dotted line. This is not an easy pattern adjustment. First, make the pants from really cheap fabric. Then you will know if you have to adjust more or less.

So now you have the basic skills to adjust your trousers! No more drama, you have everything under control. Master of the sewing studio!!!