A couple of weekends ago I finally strapped on my big girl pants and waded back into jeans fitting. This time armed with my big ass book on fitting and a more easy going attitude to what’s good enough I was confident that I will actually get a wearable pair of jeans at the end.
I spent pretty much the whole weekend doing flat pattern alterations and then sewing up a rough toile, making tweaks and then altering my flat pattern again. In the end I reached what I tend to call the Eff It Point (though obviously I say the real word), most often seen with DIY but it does occur in other areas too. Where I’ve just had enough and decide that perfectionism can do one. I pranced around in my toile in front of the manfriend asking, “this is good enough, right?”
I cut out my jeans last weekend and finally got round to starting sewing them this weekend. After sewing the pockets, I basted them together and then tried them on. To be met with… WEIRD CROTCH WRINKLES OF DOOM
I have no clue how to fix this. Most things I’ve read say that frown lines from the crotch may mean that your crotch is too long but trying to pinch out the excess didn’t seem to do anything so I’m not sure that’s the problem. I wondered if I maybe needed to let the side seams out in that general area in case it’s just stress wrinkles but the jeans don’t feel too tight at all.
I had a sort of bubble crotch thing going on in my toile, which was helped by straightening out the front curve – the flat pubis adjustment in this post. But now I’m second guessing whether that was the right thing to do.
I bought a Craftsy class on fitting jeans called The Perfect Jeans: Fitting Techniques for Every Body by Jennifer Stern-Hasemann and Jennifer is really, really helpful if you ask questions. If you upload a photo of your problem and your pattern she will draw on the pattern suggestions of how to fix your problem. So I’ve just uploaded my photos and asked for help. Because I’m lost on my own.
I thought I’d share my progress here because I always find people’s posts about fitting really interesting. And if I eventually fix the problem it might be useful if you get the same problem. Plus, you might be able to give me some advice.
Here’s the back view too:
This is view B of the Closet Case Ginger jeans shortened to a more mid rise jean by the way – using this tutorial. I shortened them by 3cm. Though looking at this photo I think I possibly shouldn’t have shortened them quite so much. And while I like a snug fit on the bum maybe a little bit more room wouldn’t go amiss.
Hopefully I’ll be able to improve the fit of this pair. But even if I can’t I’m still going to finish them and wear them. I’ll report back if they get any better.
Hope you’ve all had a great weekend with less frowning at yourself in the mirror than me.
Mmmm interesting. I’m kinda wishing I was at your house so I could look at ’em up close. I’ve no idea what’s going on, sorry, but I’m fascinated!!! Really interested to see what response you get from Jennifer – keep us posted!!
Will do. I’ve been looking through everyone else’s questions to see if my problem has already been dealt with. There was a problem that looked a bit similar and the fix to that was adding some length to the back crotch curve and taking some off the front. But then there was another one that looked similar where the fix was making the front thigh bigger. So I’m just a bit baffled really.
I will compare them to the chi-town crotch tonight.
How does the shape of the front crotch curve compare to your Chi Town shorts??
So, that downward wrinkles almost look to me like the seam immediately below the fly needs to be clipped just a little deeper at the point where the fly meets the crotch seam. Is there any more room for clipping there?
Oh my goodness, I haven’t clipped it at all because I was just basting them to assess fit and now I feel really daft. I will clip to the pivot point tonight and report back. Thank you!
Oh good; I really want to see what they look like once you’ve clipped! Did it help?
I think it helped a little bit but wasn’t the miracle cure that I’d convinced myself it would be, sadly.
Oh man, I wish my first jeans muslin looked this promising! I’m sure Jennifer will help you get everything sorted. Thanks for the link to the tutorial on shortening the rise. I have Papercut’s Otsu in my queue and I definitely need to shorten the high rise which doesn’t work on my short frame.
You’re welcome. I hadn’t seen those before, such cool style lines. I’m working on an update post on the jeans. The front crotch is still weird after following Jennifer’s advice so I think I’ll finish them up and maybe ask her again with new photos or try a new pattern. And thank you, it’s so easy to get bogged down in the iffy bits and forget the good bits.