Adjusting for erect posture

[Gerry]

I'll let out some CB to move it into darts. There's quite a bit inlay gathering now as you can imagine!

We may be at cross-purposes here, Robb. What I meant was to lift some of that cloth, vertically into the waistband. About a quarter of an inch and only in the middle of the panel/pattern, effectively creating a slight 'smiley' to the waistband seam on the pattern. As mentioned before, the area immediately to the side of the CB should be left as straight as possible. If scooped there, the CB ends up being pulled into the waistband, creating a wedgie if we're not careful.

A quarter might not sound like much, but it can make a huge difference. This is a screen grab from an old fitting video of mine (low quality, so the image is poor, sorry). Both legs have a 5/8th wedge taken out just under the crotch line, but the LHS has been picked up in the middle by a quarter and pinned in place. Note the difference.



To create a nice fall from the prominence of the seat, a slight pull on the backs is acceptable. Anymore than shown, however, creates prominent vertical drags (as seen in your photo with the seat pinned), which can create tightness when bending/sitting, amongst other problems.

I have a very straight posture, BTW.

[Robb]

We may be at cross-purposes here, Robb. What I meant was to lift some of that cloth, vertically into the waistband. About a quarter of an inch and only in the middle of the panel/pattern, effectively creating a slight 'smiley' to the waistband seam on the pattern. As mentioned before, the area immediately to the side of the CB should be left as straight as possible. If scooped there, the CB ends up being pulled into the waistband, creating a wedgie if we're not careful.

I think I got what you mean. I drew some rough lines on the pattern to reflect the changes. (I erased the front part lines for clearness)

The blue line is where I currently basted the waistband at. And I think what you meant for the smiley is the red line?

The green line is how much I roughly took out of the CB. I made sure it was square with the waistband on the toile (blue line) to avoid a chevron shape but that took out most of the angle of the seat seam.

[Gerry]

I think I got what you mean. I drew some rough lines on the pattern to reflect the changes. (I erased the front part lines for clearness)

The blue line is where I currently basted the waistband at. And I think what you meant for the smiley is the red line?

Not quite, Robb. Point 23 remains untouched. Probably point 22 as well: sometimes a little adjustment is needed there to maintain a nice, even run of the waistband (in that photo I posted, the SS was picked up by an eighth).

This is exaggerated for clarity, but the line should look similar. A subtle, curved dip (hence my use of the term 'smiley') in the middle of the panel, yet straight as possible at the CB.



All we're doing is pulling a small amount of cloth up into the waist, just over the fullest part of the seat, to get a cleaner fall. In conjunction with a wedge lower down, it helps to clean things up. What we don't want is to reduce the height of the CB. Nor scoop things there. Both will result in the seat being pulled up at the CB, creating a wedgie.

It's best to pin things to do this. Don't alter the draft then take it to the cloth, it should be the other way round.

[Robb]

Not quite, Robb. Point 23 remains untouched. Probably point 22 as well: sometimes a little adjustment is needed there to maintain a nice, even run of the waistband (in that photo I posted, the SS was picked up by an eighth).

Ah! I thought a smiley across the whole of the back, from sideseam to sideseam.

[Gerry]

Ah! I thought a smiley across the whole of the back, from sideseam to sideseam.

As with all with modifications, don't go overboard with this. It should just be a subtle curve, no more than a quarter inch dip in the middle. Any more than this and you'll likely pull down the waistband and/or create strong vertical drags at the backs of the legs.

Also, only do this on the need-to basis: if your wedge doesn't totally clean things up.