Adjustment Comparison

Shop Pant leg shortening

This is a follow-up to the previous post about the easiest effective method of pattern adjustment to shorten the leg.

Perviously we measured the amount desired up from the hem. But what about the lengthen/shorten lines on the pattern? Why not use these?

Let’s make this adjustment using the lengthen/shorten line and then compare the two approaches. Skip to the summary section if you want the conclusion!

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Decision

With two lengthen/shorten lines, we need to decide how much of the 5 inches will be removed at each lengthen/shorten line.

I decided to make it proportionate to the total leg length¹.

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Pattern manipulation

Cut along the lengthen/shorten line and overlap to remove the specified amount.

Shaded area shows the part that will be eliminated.

The shaded internal area is removed keeping the grainline constant.

But we are not finished, there’s an issue, 8 issues to be precise (with the Shop Pant)!

Adjusting slanted or curved lines internally like this creates a jagged outline in the pattern². We need to edit these seam lines and smooth them out.

New seam lines shown in green, blending the difference where the pattern was slashed and overlapped to remove length.

Whenever any seam line is redrafted on the pattern it needs to be checked against the seam line it matches with (not shown).

Outcome

And now we have our adjusted pattern, shortened 5 inches in the leg.

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Visual illusion

Looking at the original and adjusted pattern side-by-side (above), the adjusted one seems smaller overall, not just in length. This is a visual illusion. One of the glories of fashion and clothing is how readily the human eye can be fooled.