Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Pants Grainline Musings, part 2: Mea Culpa

Y'know, there's nothing like a blog for public humiliation. If you boo-boo, you do it in front of the whole wide world...sigh.

Well, I went to the Chat Archives at Pattern Review to see if I could find the chat that originally mentioned moving the grainline on pants. I found it...it was Pattern Engineering (you may have to be a Pattern Review subscriber to view it)in August of '02 and the Expert was Judy Barlup. However, much to my chagrin, I discovered that I was absolutely wrong about what she said. I think I joined the chat late and missed the original statement she made about shifting the grainline and therefore didn't have the context for what I read later. She very clearly states early on that shifting the grainline to the center doesn't change the grainline of the pants, it just provides the critical balance point (that Shannon mentioned in the Comments on the first Pants Grainline post) for making adjustments to the leg width so the pants hang properly after the adjustments are made. I had the later comments out of context and put the wrong interpretation on them. So now I have serious egg on my face! In penance, I will spend the entire day running errands and cleaning house and will not so much as read a pattern back. And from now on I'll make sure I read the whole chat if I miss some.

But, having said that, I still think I have seen other comments here and there that do seem to indicate that some folks believe the grainline must be in the center of the leg or the pattern isn't quite right. But, you know, I could be wrong about that, too...

1 comment:

  1. Stated so much better than my own fumbling attempts to respond to the pant grain discussion. I understand your point, that where you draw a line doesn't mean anything, it is just a line after all. What I was saying about the grainline on the front of the pant, and its relationship to the crotch line, was to form exactly that, a balance point from which to reference all other changes, design or alteration wise. I like that word, balance point, because it exactly conveys its purpose. I spoke of balancing pants. I was referring to balancing pants; same point.

    A line is a line after all. But in any well engineered structure, even clothing, all parts have a relationship to the whole and there must be some point, object, or structure to which all measurements relate.

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