True Bias Women’s Hudson Pant

I’ve postponed this blog post for months now because I don’t know precisely what I want to convey. Drafting a pattern from a duct tape body form isn’t exactly easy-peasy, and I’ve spent months tweaking my self-drafted pattern. I’ve got no clear cut answer for how I went from a block form to a pattern for these pants. There was a lot of guessing and tweaking and comparing. I used True Bias’s Hudson pant pattern as a template.

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Given some of the recent discussions on Instagram about sizing and fit I thought it might be enlightening for people to see that just because you “fit” within a standard size range, doesn’t mean the pattern will fit you. In True Bias patterns, my measurements are an exact size 14, waist 34.5 inches and hips 42.5 inches. However, my final pattern which I feel is a perfect fit for me bears little similarity with the original Hudson pant pattern. I’ve gone way beyond a small little tweak here and there. If I were to alter the Hudson pant pattern, I would have to make changes of 4+ inches.

In the image below, the Hudson pattern is in blue, and my pattern is in red. The differences are mind-boggling, no?

Hopefully, this post helps dispel the myth that sewing patterns will always work on a “standard” body size. I don’t begrudge the pattern designers at all, not even a little bit, because I can’t expect them to make a pattern that works for all shapes and sizes. If sewing patterns fit with little to no alterations, then I’d probably fit in RTW clothes and never sew in the first place. I sew because RTW clothes don’t fit. I, therefore, expect that patterns are also not going to fit, but at least I’m in control and can make clothes fit. I love the process of altering patterns and trying to make things fit my body.