Men’s Joggers Comparison Guide: Part 2, Drape

HandmadePhD, Grasser No191, True Bias Men’s Hudson, Green Style Iron, Sinclair Lakeside, Jalie Henri

In part 1 of this blog series, I introduced several men’s jogger patterns:

• Grasser No191 (click here for Pinterest Board)
• True Bias Men’s Hudson (click here for Pinterest Board)
• Green Style Iron (click here for Pinterest Board)
• Sinclair Lakeside (click here for Pinterest Board)
• Jalie 3909 Henri (click here for Pinterest Boad)

It is hard to compare the patterns because they are all so different. No pattern has the same grainline placement for the front or back pattern piece at the hip level. Grainline placement at the knee is also different for each pattern. Some patterns are balanced at the knee. Some patterns have more width on the inside of the knee. Some patterns have more width on the outside/side seam of the knee. Before comparing the patterns, I need to adjust these differences (i.e., grainline placement) without ruining the style.

I also talked about two clothing aspects in my first post: fit and style. I further split fit into two categories: drape and size. I want to adjust fit and not style when I alter a pattern. The first and most important adjustment is to ensure the garment is balanced on your body and drapes correctly with your figure. For this post, I will show you what two alterations I would make to each pattern. These two alterations fix the drape of the garment by fixing the placement of the center grainline.

After the drape of the garment is altered, it is easier to judge whether the pants are the correct size. I will also talk briefly about waistband and hip circumference in this post.

Fixing Drape

Center Grainline at the Knee

Fix grainline at the knee first!

If you want to know more about why grainline placement is important, check out my previous blog post, “Crease Line Placement at the Knee.” I’m using the back piece from True Bias Hudson pants for this example.

1. Find the center of the ankle. Draw a line from the center of the ankle vertical to the waistband. This is the center grainline.
2. Place a mark at the center along the knee level.
3. Cut the pattern horizontally at the knee level.
4. Move the upper portion of the pattern to align the center of the knee level with the grainline.
5. Finish the alteration by redrawing the legs from the new knee points down to the original ankle points. You will also have to redraw your center grainline for the upper portion since that was the portion that moved.

Notice that adjusting grainline placement at the knee changes grainline placement at the hip level. This is why it is important to first change grainline placement at the knee.

Center Grainline at the Hip

1. Find the center of the ankle. Draw a line from the center of the ankle vertical to the waistband. This is the center grainline.
2. Draw a horizontal line at the top of the crotch curve for your hip level. Place a mark on the horizontal hip level where your grainline placement needs to go. If you want to find out more information about grainline placement at the hip, check out my previous blog post, “Creaseline Placement at the Hips”.
3. You can cut along the hip level, but that’ll mean redrawing the crotch curve. I’ll need to alter the crotch curve later anyway, so instead of doing that step twice, cut along the crotch level instead. In other words, draw a horizontal line at the bottom of the crotch curve and cut along that line.
4. Move the upper portion of the pattern to align the mark you made with the center grainline.
5. Finish the alteration by redrawing the legs from the new crotch level down to the knees. You will also have to redraw the center grainline for the upper portion.

Grasser No191

What was altered?

• The grainline was centered at the knee for front and back. It was off by very little though.
• At the hip, the grainline was moved further away from the center front.
• The back grainline at the hip was initially fine, but when the knee grainline was centered, this changed the placement of graineline at the hip level slightly. I understand it is hard/impossible to see the alterations in the figure above. The alterations were ⅛ inch or smaller.

Will the pants fit at the waist and hip?

• Yes, the waistband for Grasser is 45-½ and that would easily fit and there would be no problem getting the pants over Ryan’s hips.
• There’s more than enough room at the hips.

The center front and back angles are acceptable for a knit jogger. I would be pickier in a trouser style pattern. I’m unsure about the dropped crotch feature of these joggers. I would definitely need to make a toile at this point to assess fit. Otherwise, the Grasser jogger seems like a decent fit for Ryan. The extra width along the back side-seam probably does need to be removed.

True Bias Men’s Hudson

What was altered?

• The grainline at the knee level was centered for front and back. There was excess on the inside.
• The grainline at the hip level was moved closer to the center front and back.

Will the pants fit at the waist and hip?

• Barely, the waistband is 41-¾ and that is smaller than Ryan’s widest point of 42 inches.
• At least there’s enough room at the hips.

The thing that stands out is how narrow the front piece is compared to my self-drafted version. This is such an odd pattern because, in some places, it’s too tight (waist, front leg, and front torso), but in other areas, it is too big (back leg). It’s really frustrating.

Green Style Iron

What was altered?

• The grainline at the knee level was centered for front and back. There was excess on the outside.
• The grainline at the hip level was moved further from the center front and closer to the center back.

Will the pants fit at the waist and hip?

• Yes, the waistband is 43-½ and that will fit over Ryan’s hips for sure.
• The hips have the same amount of room as my pattern, although it’s distributed differently (more in the back, less in the front).

The most noticeable issue is how low the rise is on the Green Style pattern. The back is about 1-½ inches lower, and the front is slightly over 2 inches lower!

I love how the top of the waistband is drafted to ensure the corners are at 90º. That’s something I’ll definitely need to incorporate into my patterns. I sometimes struggle to square up my corners.

Sinclair Lakeside

What was altered?

• The grainline at the knee level was centered for front and back. There was excess on the inside.
• The grainline at the hip level was moved closer to the center back. Centering grainline at the knee fixed the grainline placement at the hip on the front pattern piece.

Will the pants fit at the waist and hip?

• Maybe not, the waistband is 41-⅝ and that is smaller than Ryan’s hips.
• Yikes, the hips are a inch narrower too. That’s not going to work at all.

The center back angle is really aggressive on the Sinclair pattern. Given that the recommended fabric for these patterns is a knit, having the angle of the center seam off by ¼ is tolerable. However, this is off by over an inch, and that’s too much. These joggers are definitely designed for someone with a butt that really protrudes from their body.

These are overall much smaller. They are narrow not only in the legs but also at the waist and hips. I’m going to say that even though I selected the size associated with a hip of 42″, I would really need to size up 1 or 2 sizes for this pattern to work. In my opinion, I would say these joggers were drafted too small. How disappointing?

Jalie Henri

What was altered?

• This was the only pattern with the grainline centered perfectly at the knee!
• The grainline at the hip level was moved further away from the center front and closer to the center back.

Will the pants fit at the waist and hip?

• No, the waistband is 40-1/2 and that is 1-1/2 inches smaller than Ryan’s widest part. I don’t think joggers even in knit should stretch that much!
• The hips have enough room though.

The front pattern piece is tiny compared to my self-drafted pattern, more so on the torso portion than the legs. The alterations on the front pattern piece look weird because it is now too wide at the knee. The knee extends beyond the outer hip. Either the front waist, hip, and crotch area need to be widened, or the leg needs to be narrowed. This pattern is also not going to work at all.

Summary

After making the adjustments so that the joggers will drape correctly, I also took a quick look at waist and hip measurements to see how they compare to Ryan’s body and my self-drafted pattern. Where Ryan usually wears pants measures 38 inches. All of these patterns have plenty of extra room at the waist. However, some of the waistbands are narrower than Ryan’s hips, 42 inches. Although the joggers often have some stretch, relying on the fabric to stretch to fit isn’t ideal. At this point, I would say that True Bias, Sinclair, and Jalie are not necessarily good patterns for Ryan.

The second issue is hip measurements. All the patterns, except Sinclair, have the exact hip measurement or are wider than my self-drafted version. Sinclair’s pattern is definitely out. It’s too small at the waist and too small at the hip.

Final Thoughts

I’ll review crotch hook length for my third and final post and explore the whole crotch curve area. That’s the last area to adjust fit. Stay tuned!