Straight Side Seams and Pant Balance: Insights from the Topo Pattern (Part 5)

Welcome to the final post in this series on balancing pant patterns! I’ve been exploring the ins and outs of creating a well-balanced pant using the Topo Pants pattern by Leila Makes. Each part of the journey has been about discovering what it takes to get pants to drape just right, and now it’s time to wrap things up.

In Part 1, I introduced the pattern and the basics of setting drapelines (vertical lines down the leg) and balance lines (horizontal lines at the knee and bottom of the crotch).

In Part 2, I discovered that even if I matched the side seams and inseams, leveled the top of the side seams, and made the drapelines parallel, the pants still didn’t drape well. Suggesting that leveling the crotch curve might be important.

In Part 3, I learned that you have to be careful when leveling the crotch curves to make sure your front inseam isn’t significantly shorter than the back inseam.

In Part 4, I brought everything together, showing that once all adjustments were balanced, the pants finally draped well.

Now, in Part 5, I want to see what would happen if I only level the crotch curve, leaving everything else unchanged.

Adjustments

When trying to level the crotch curves on the original pattern, I immediately ran into a problem. If I raise the crotch curves to the same level, the back crotchline will be higher than the front crotchline (green dots).

Instead, I raised the crotch curve up to the point where the crotchlines would meet at the side seams. It’s obvious that the drapelines really need to be parallel for this step to work (foreshadowing).