If you’re new to this series, I recommend checking out Part 1 before diving into Part 2. In this series, I’m studying the principles of balance for pants. I’m using the Topo Pants pattern from Leila Makes as my example. The front pattern piece has a typical curved side seam, but the back has a straight side seam—a feature I’ve never seen in a pant pattern before. When the pants didn’t drape the way I wanted, my first thought was to redraft the front side seam to be straight like the back. So, that’s where we’ll start.
Adjustments
Red: Updated Pattern
I began by drawing a vertical line the widest part of the front pattern piece to the hem. This became my new straight side seam. Next, I measured how much I added to the side seam at the hem (e.g., 2-1/2 inches) and removed that amount from the inseam of the hem.
Next, I redrew the front drapeline by finding the midpoint of the front hem and knee and then drew a line through those two points. I also added balance lines at the knee (kneeline) and the bottom of the crotch curve (crotchline). These lines always need to be perpendicular to the drapeline.
I also made sure to lower the front side seam at the waistline to be on the same level as the back side seam.
The last step was checking that the front and back drapelines were parallel. To adjust the angle of the drapeline on a pant pattern with a straight side seam, widen or narrow the pants at the knee to change the midpoint. When you change the knee midpoint, the angle of the drapeline will also change. In this case, I decided to trim a bit of fabric off the back knee, though I could have added to the front kneeline instead. I used the principles of checking balance to guide this adjustment (see part D below).
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