Curve musings

Still sort of mulling over fitting the crotch curve on pants...

So many instructors talk about crotch depth, crotch length, crotch width but for some reason very few mention crotch shape. The above photo is of two pants back patterns; the left one is the Sewing Workshop Plaza Pant, which fits me pretty well, and the one on the right is Loes Hinse's European Pant, which I have to work on. The Plaza pants are drafted for a rump in which the fullness is low, the Euros are drafted for a rump that has higher curves. No amount of length added anywhere to the Euros is going to make them fit like the Plazas...the Euros are going to have to be scooped (sort of like lowering the bust point).

But scooping removes fabric that is needed to fit the circumference of the low hip. So fabric must be added...not where the leg joins the body, because that doesn't add to the hip circumference of the pants. Fabric has gotta go on the outseam, cause that's the only place left to add so that the total hip circumference is the same. But the jodphur look is not one to pursue here, so the extra needs to be added all the way up to the waist...which means that much needs to be taken from the crotch seam, all the way up to the waist, so the pants don't end up way too big at the waist. But if I just trim evenly up that slanty back seam, then I've basically just moved the same crotch shape further into the pattern. Somehow, for the Euros to fit me, I've got to
1) rotate the dart that's in the back crotch seam (that slanty seam functions as a dart) so that that seam is on grain; that'll probably mean adding another back dart; at the very least it will mean enlarging the one that's there
2)scoop the back, taking it all the way up to the waist and
3) add the amount I removed back on to the side seam so I don't loose anything on the total hip circumference. I may also have to add a bit to the back crotch point, but we'll see.

Sounds complicated, doesn't it? Maybe after the SWAP is done I can try it out. I've always just sort of taken the 'try this' approach to fitting pants, without really thinking about what is happening to the pattern, and I've only had so-so results.
So now I've actually thought through the process (about time!). If I can make that curve on the Euros fit, I think I can fit anything... ;)