Are They Jeans or Pants? - Butterick 6331

This is my last spring/summer make and it's taken me a while to post it. I bought this pink fabric last summer for a pair of pants but never got around to making them.  There’s never enough time, right?  So this year I made it a point to get to it even though it’s almost fall and I really won’t wear them much until the spring.  I didn’t pay a whole lot for the fabric so I chose a new pant pattern and attempted a wearable muslin.

I used the Lisette Pattern 6331 by Butterick because I liked the narrow leg (there’s a cute jacket included in the pattern if you’re interested) and the opportunities for topstitching.  There is a back yoke on the pants which makes me wonder if I should call them jeans or pants.  They’re something like the Chevy El Camino. Is it a car or a truck?

I made all of my usual adjustments to the pattern which included adding 3/4” to the back rise and “scooping” out the crotch and redrawing the curve by copying the curve from my favorite pants pattern. This pattern has a straight waistband which almost never works for me so I ditched the waistband pattern entirely and used my own curved waistband. Typically when there’s a straight waistband on a pattern, the pants/skirt are drafted to sit all the way up to the waist, 80’s style.  Now there’s nothing wrong with the 80’s (except for the red suede scrunchie boots I may or may not have worn) however,  1 1/2” lower at the waist would be more comfortable for me.

High waist.

Lots of topstitching, my favorite.

I don’t remember the fabric content of these pants but I can tell you it has ALOT of spandex and is quite stiff.  The spandex thing is such a catch 22, isn’t it?  We love how woven fabrics with stretch feel but it’s frustrating when a garment loses it’s shape after just a couple of hours. Don’t you hate the jeans you have that fit great in the morning but get the “baggy butt” by lunchtime?  This is only part of my fit problem, however, so I still need some adjustments.

Seat needs room.

Too much fabric at the thigh.

You can see in the photo that there’s too much fabric at the top of the back thigh.  In the future, I’ll take out 2” horizontally at the top of the thigh (I know the pic on the right is a sketchy photo and I have no pride, but I wanted to show the problem in the hopes of helping other sewists, right?) and add the 2” back in at the hem before I make the next pair.  The adjustment will look like this:

If I make these pants/jeans again I’ll change a couple of things: 

•  I’ll choose a softer fabric with less spandex.
•  Lower the waistline at least 1 1/2” because they sit right at my natural waist.
•  Make back leg adjustment I described above.
•  “Scoop” the back just a little bit more (to ease the pull in the seat).

​I have a Dover Jacket that I turned into a dress under the machine right now.  What are you sewing?