Jeans are a wonderful wardrobe staple. Everyone wears them: men, women, and children. They can be work pants or dressy pants. They go with pretty much everything.
The challenge with jeans is that they have to fit. For those of us who are pear-shaped, jeans that fit in the hips seem to be always too loose in the waist, sometimes by several inches. On tighter fitting styles, the seat still seams to be somehow not right. The good news is, all of this can be fixed with proper pattern modifications.
Basic sizing of jeans is accomplished by adding fabric to the side seams, hems, and top at the waistband. However, for those of us with an especially curvy butt, that's just not enough.
The first thing to do is to add to the back of the pants at the crotch. As seen with the line of pins here, make the center back seam longer and taper into the inseam. I cut the back long the pattern or the pins, which ever was bigger.
The back yoke also needs modified for best fit. Take fabric out of the center back seam, tapering to nothing at the yoke/back seam. Add extra fabric to the top of the pants at the center back.
Assemble the pants in a different order than the instructions call for. First, put the zipper in the center front. Skip the pockets, because fitting the jeans might change the pocket locations. Sew the back yoke to the back. Then, baste the side seams, inseams, and center back seam. I like to use contrasting color thread to make the remove of the basting stitches easier.
With the jeans basted together, try them on for fit and adjust the side seams and back part of the inseam as necessary. Yes, even pear shaped women can get jeans that just fit, without being excessively baggy anywhere.
At this point, the jeans should fit well, so it's just a matter of adding all the special touches that make jeans special. Come back next week for a discussion of pocket embroidery and top stitching.
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