Just for fun and for practice, I made an attempt to draw my first crotch curve last week. I used my 40" flexible ruler. I wrapped 3 individual rubber bands on the ruler. One to mark my front waistline, one to mark my crotch point, and the last one to mark my back waistline. I wrapped the ruler from my front, under my crotch, and over my rear. Yes, I had to wiggle the rubber bands along the flexible ruler for proper placement to represent the 3 points on my body. I carefully stepped out of my flexible ruler and immediately placed the ruler on my cutting table. I had already laid out and taped together 2 sheets of 8-1/2"x11" paper. I traced the inside edge of my ruler and marked the rubber band points on my paper.
Today, I plan on producing an accurate crotch curve. I will be using 1/4" elastic to wrap around my waist and using my flexible ruler to get an accurate crotch curve along with the 3 points (front waist, crotch pt, and back waist).
I plan on tracing my crotch curve on a piece of sturdy white paper and also on my tracing paper.
I also ordered a Pants Fitting book by Cynthia Guffey.
I will be back to post a picture of my crotch curve.
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I finally got around to producing a pretty accurate crotch curve and I have pictures to show.
First off, I couldn't find my white roll of paper. So, I ended up taking four (4) pieces of 8-1/2" x 11" paper and taping them together.
I put on my one-piece swimsuit and tied my 1/4" wide elastic around my waist. I stepped into my flexible ruler and made sure the "rubber bands" were hitting my front waist and crotch point. DH (who was laughing hysterically at this point) helped me adjust the back waist rubber band on the ruler to match the elastic at my back waist.
Once I explained to DH that this step was necessary for proper pants fitting, he quieted down considerably. We did have a good laugh.
I had just "stepped out" of my flexible ruler and quickly laid it on my white paper. I used my Crayola pencil to trace the curve inside the ruler. I marked a line where the rubber band points were. The "front" of the curve is on the left side near the pencils.
I decided to try 3 times and traced the 3 curves. As you can see, I came up with 3 slightly different results. I am going with the last traced curve I did, which is the inside curve. When I stepped out of my ruler, I had to be careful not to distort the ruler. I finally got the hang of it on my third try.
Here's a picture of one of the rubber bands "wrapped" around the ruler.
Guess what? My practice crotch curve from last week was pretty close to the one I drew this afternoon. I feel comfortable going forward with what I have.
Now, I have a question to my fellow sewists. Does this crotch curve look weird to you? Average? What does it tell you?
4 comments:
I learned to do the crotch curve just like you did, from a magazine only about a month ago. My crotch curve looks almost exactly like yours. I made flannel pants with it and for the first time ever, the fabric comes up high enough in the back and there is enough fabric to cover my "bubble butt" without pulling. It's taken me years to finally get it right. Yours looks just right if you have had this problem as I have. Good luck!
Susan, mine looks so much like yours that it's amazing! Last month I was lamenting the strange look of my crotch curve but found a pic of it in the last issue of Sew News titled "Low Fanny". It finally dawned on me why I get some major butt baggy-ness on my backside--I have to lower the crotch curve by a decent amount. Those Big 4 back crotch curves are short and shallow, whereas ours are low and long.
Did you compare this yet to a Big 4pattern back crotch curve? I'd love to see how yours compares against the pattern. That's what I did and it was a Wowza! moment. Those patterns are NOT made for my rear end! Where's the damn 18-year old fit model??? I'd like to give her a whack with my flexible ruler LOL.
Susan, do you have a tilted waistline? The curve looks a bit tilted with your fanny dropped quite low. I think it looks more normal if you make the front waist a bit lower than the back.
I need to do this. I have read Kat's blog about this and now seeing what you are doing. I have never been able to get a good fitting pant making them myself. I always buy RTW. However there are usually fitting issues with those as well.
I look forward to the next installment of what you do with this.
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