Redrafting the Merchant & Mills Strides...

Well, I'm still working on my Strides trousers. That bit of bagginess in the back is bugging me.

I started over this morning with new tissue, drawn directly from the M&M pattern, size 14. And I re-drafted the back with a couple of flat seat adjustments. Ha! I never thought I have a flat bum, but actually I qualify. Oh, pickles. Since when is aging a synonym for dropping :-)

So I did another muslin, and I'm so happy with the result. I'm cutting out a full-length pair of Strides in denim later today. There are a lot of changes, so I'm starting here...


First: the fish-eye dart. This is the same kind of dart that is often drawn vertically:

And can be drawn across one's pant to remove bagging at the bottom of the bum:

I used a wonderful set of pics/mini-tutorial from Ann Rowley to draft the dart.

Finished, the fish-eye looks like this. Absolutely no relation to a fish's eye. It's a slash-and-move technique that impacts the grainline, the waistline dart, the crotch line, and the tissue across the horizontal:

Having done that, I cut and sewed my muslin. And I discovered new things. My crotch was a little tight, where it had been loose before! No!! Whiskers are not welcome.

So I moved to my second change - this is also a flat seat adjustment, one I've used before.

I scooped out the crotch at the bottom. I decided to extend it just a little into my front crotch curve, because my front crotch almost pouched on my first Strides. It didn't show in the pics, but I could see it when I put on the pants. Just a little bit.

I didn't incorporate any of the changes I made on my first pair of Strides.






I've always wanted denim trousers. I think they are so cool. Like this inspiration pic from my Pinterest board - how fun are these!

Bye for now - Coco