Uneven Stripes and How to Tame Them

I recently made a pair of super soft Coffeehouse Pants in a rayon/linen blend.  Now those of you with any experience with stripes, know it can take some finesse to make them look good. In the case of an uneven stripe, the school of thought has been that they can't be matched. But I'm here to say that they can!

We should start by defining an uneven stripe.  An uneven stripe has different stripe colors and widths that don't form a symmetrical pattern.  Here is an example of pants in uneven stripes that haven't been matched:

Usually when we make pants we attempt to match the stripes in the center front and center back so they form a "V" shape. But here, there's no match at center front. Here's how to fix it.

Normally when we lay out fabric, we fold the fabric in half lengthwise.  With an uneven stripe, you get stripes that don't line up. If you look at the red stripes in the pic below, you can see they're almost opposite in the lengthwise fold.

The solution comes in the way you fold the fabric before layout. If you fold your fabric on the CROSSGRAIN, you can avoid this entirely. In the photo below, I folded the fabric crosswise and now all the stripes line up:

Since the fabric was folded on the crossgrain, my pant pattern pieces were laid out side by side:

Here's the match I got on the center back seam:

It's so simple but a complete game changer!  Keep the crosswise fold in mind before purchasing your fabric for an uneven stripe project so you're certain to buy enough fabric.  

I hope this helps all of you!

Stay well and keep sewing,
Diane
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