Sophie Hines Median Knickers Update

I did a complete analysis of the median Knickers a while ago. I needed to update my pattern pieces; this is just a review of my changes. You would think, “Oh, my underwear is too big now. I should be able to just go down a size.” Unfortunately, my changes aren’t straightforward because my body didn’t conveniently shrink uniformly. My shape has changed dramatically.

Determining the Correct Size

Based on my previous/old body measurements, 34 inches at the waist and 44 inches at the hips, I should have made a size 1X. However, when I measured my body where the elastic would sit, I measured 38 inches at the waistband and 26.5 inches at the leg band. The suggested elastic for 1X is 32 inches for the waistband and 21.5 inches for the leg bands. This would have been 15.8% negative ease at the waistband and 18.9% at the leg band. From the muslin I made, I knew it was too tight, especially around the legs. Ultimately, I made a size 2X overall and graded the side seam to size 1X at the waistband. I cut my leg band elastic to 23.5 inches, as suggested for the 2X size, and my waistband elastic to 33.5 inches, which is between the 1X and 2X recommendations. That gave me 11.8% negative ease for the waistband and 11.3% for the leg bands.

Fast forward to today. My current body measurements are 34 inches at my natural waistline and 42 inches at my full hip, but more importantly, I measure 36 inches at the waistband and 26 inches around the leg band. That is 2 inches smaller at the waistband and only 1/2 inch around the leg band. Instead of altering the pattern, I removed 1/2 inch from the leg band elastic to make it slightly tighter. However, I needed to remove 1-1/2 inches (33.5 to 32 inches) from my waistband elastic to achieve 11.8% negative ease, but should I alter the pattern, and how should it be altered? Solutions:

• Don’t alter the pattern since the waistline was graded to a size 1X, and just use the recommended elastic length of 32 inches
• Remove 1-1/2 inches from the side seam (front and/or back)
• Remove 1-1/2 inches from the center front and/or back
• Combination of the side seam and center seam

Well, how does the old pattern fit?

Fit of the Old Pattern

Holy heck, you can immediately see the issue from the front 🫣 There’s excess fabric at the center front that needs to be removed, and the front waistband is also too low.

The side looks ok. I need to raise the side seam up a bit, too.

The back looks fine. So, I need to remove 1 to 1-1/2 inches from the center front only and raise the front and side waistband. I don’t need to remove anything from the side waistline or center back waistline.