Lana's Jeans - Take 1

Not bad, but not perfect, for the first pair after the fitting muslin.  I neglected to put the waist band on the muslin and that was a mistake in the fitting process.  In the "interim" final pair I chose to cut a more narrow waistband and fold from the top lengthwise.  I will, with the next pair,  stick with a two piece band that has a seam at the top.  It will just be more stable I think.

I'm generally happy with this pair.  A couple more adjustments are necessary for the next pair.  The waistband needs to be shorter, OR I'm thinking it needs to be contoured rather than straight.  I think contoured will fit better where I've chosen to wear the waist of these jeans.

 You will notice (left leg) there are lots of wrinkles under the bum.  I have taken a "dart" (horizontal) from inseam  tapering to nothing at the side seam (see right leg).  See what a difference it makes?  In this first pair I still had too much fabric between the bum and the knee and the angle was apparently off even though I had made an adjustment based on the muslin (of which I didn't get photos - sorry).  Above the dart is pinned.

Above photo shows the dart basted in.

Here's the revised pattern.  To compensate for the shortened length of the back inseam due to this adjustment, I lengthened at the hem at the inseam (where I took out the dart leg length) and then redrew the grain line so the hem would continue to be perpendicular to the grain.

I tossed around the idea of taking this pair apart and cutting a new back, but decided that was more than I wanted to tackle.  This pair will be just fine for the house and errands.  I do want to wash them a couple more times before I hem them.  These fit as well as some of my RTW pairs.

I think the front looks better too (my right leg the modified one):

I need to purchase more denim for what I hope will be the "interim final" pair with these two most recent noted changes (the waistband and the folded out dart).

I can't say enough about Peggy Sager's fitting method of draping the garment on "MY" body for fit.  I would never understand what needed to be done to the pattern to improve fit with "guessing" how much tuck (for length) or how deep of a dart to take away (or slash and add) to create the correct depth where it is needed/
Her explanations for length, circumference, and depth are making more and more sense to me with every alternation I make.  If you struggle with fitting, I encourage you to read about fitting on her website and actually watch how she does it on "real" people in her free webcasts (also found on her website).

Now on to pair #2 when I can get more denim and get it washed up.