Pattern Drafting: Custom Pajama Pants Pattern

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

Last week, I took another little break from the blog; following a very busy long weekend, I was feeling a little sick and needed some rest. I've noticed that I often need some downtime following long weekends, so I've been thinking about how I might deal with post-long weekend blog posts moving forward!

I could chose to take a break from the blog on those weeks, after all, there's only about ten of them throughout the year; I could plan to share something really simple, like a photo journal, that will still afford me time to rest; or perhaps I'll think up another idea I love before the next long weekend arrives!

I'll give those thoughts a little time to simmer before I come to a conclusion, in the meantime, I have a few other projects I'd like to take a look at!

Custom Pants Pattern

Over the last few months, I've had a handful of different projects underway, but one I've been struggling to make progress on is my custom pants pattern.

As I've shared many times, my body falls outside of the range of sizes typically covered by mass manufactured garments. I am considered plus sized, which isn't always carried in-store, and am tall enough that tall sized pants are still a few inches too short.

Since I started off learning to sew by making garments, sewing my own pants isn't something that intimidates me, my problem is with finding a pattern.

As with in-store clothing, clothing patterns are available in a limited range of sizes. Most manufacturers do their best to make that range as wide as possible, but in my experience with clothing patterns, I know I would still have to make alterations if I want the finished garment to fit me.

So despite having virtually no experience in pattern drafting, I'll be attempting to completely self draft my own pants pattern!

Pajama Pants Drafting

I'll be starting off really simple with a loose-fitting, elastic waistband, pajama pants pattern. This is a great starting point because the lose fit doesn't require much shaping, and the elastic waistband eliminates the need for plackets or other closure construction!

All together, this will be four pieces; two leg fronts and two leg backs, with pockets as an optional addition.

I've made many, many pairs of pajama pants in this style in the past, so I'm very familiar with their construction, but to get my pattern, I've always traced off an existing pair of pants.

This time, I'll be drafting my own pattern from my own measurements!

Measurements

If I want this pattern to fit me, I'll need to start by taking my measurements!

For super accurate measurements, it's best to have someone else measure your body while you stand still, but you can also take your own measurements. I took my measurements myself, so they might be a little off, but since I'm drafting a loose garment, that shouldn't be a problem.

Here are the measurements I need for this draft:

Waist - 38"

Hip - 47"

Butt - 51"

Knee - 20"

Ankle - 13"

Inseam - 34"

Outseam - 44"

Knee drop - 26"

Rise - 15"

Note that the widest part of my body falls below the hip, so I'll be using the wider butt measurement in place of a hip measurement that thinner folks might use.

An additional note, I rounded all of my numbers up to the nearest full inch to make the math a little easier. Since this is a loose fitting pattern, this is fine to do, but for something more fitted, accurate measurements would be necessary.

Pattern Drafting

To draft this pattern, I'm partially taking instructions from an old fashion course book from the Huron School of Fashion that I got from my Grandma;

Logie, Janet. All About Pants. Second printing, Huron School of Fashion, 1971, Exeter, Ontario.

The instructions in that book are for a more polished and fitted slack-style pants pattern, so I'll be altering the instructions using my own understanding of pants construction to get the type of garment I want!

The first step is to draft the body block. A body block is basically a grid that the pattern is drafted on top of to ensure that key points—like the knees, ankle, and waist—line up across all pieces of the garment.

Each point on the body block is labelled with a number or letter, as per the instructions in All About Pants. Running horizontally, line 1-A-2 marks my waist, line 5-11 is my crotch, line 6-12 is my knee, and line 3-13-4 is my ankle. The vertical line A-11-12-13 is the centre of the pant leg.

This same body block will be used for both the front and back leg patterns.

With the body block drafted, I can start plotting the points needed for the leg front!

For the most part, I followed the plotting instructions in All About Pants, but omitted the shaping along the waistline that would make the pants fitted. Once I'd plotted all the points that I did want to include, it simply became a game of connect the dots to make the outline of the pattern piece!

The leg back follows the same process of plotting the necessary points and connecting them, but the location of the points is calculated a little differently, resulting in slightly different shape.

Once I have my very basic pants shapes completed, I start to make my adjustments.

I carry more of my weight at the back of my body than the front, so I'll be taking two inches out of the width of my front panel along the central A-11-12-13 line and adding it back into the same line on the back panel.

When the pieces are flat like this, the front appears disproportionately narrow compared to the back, but I'm confident these will look right once I've turned the pieces into a 3-dimensional garment!

As it stands, the pattern I've drafted is a 'net' pattern, meaning it doesn not include seam allowance. Some folks prefer their patterns like this, but others prefer seam allowance inclusive patterns, it's very much a personal choice as to which you use.

I'm happy to use either, but while I'm still adjusting the pattern, I think keeping it net will be better for me.

Friends, after all of this, I still don't actually have a pattern drawn up!

The images I've shown have all been digital renderings drawn to scale with my actual measurements to ensure that I understand the plotting process used in All About Pants, so the next thing to do is transfer all my information onto paper at real size.

Once that's done, I can make a fabric mockup to wear around my house for a few hours to test the fit, making sure the pattern is actually correctly scaled and sized. After all, people aren't still manniquins; if clothes aren't comfortable to sit, stand, walk, and live in, then they probably don't fit correctly!

I'll be working on the paper pattern and mockup over the next couple of days and am hoping to share a little bit of my progress along the way over on Instagram. And, of course, if you have any drafting tips for me, please share those in the comments below!

I'm looking forward to seeing how this pattern comes together!