Pants for Real People: Fit and Sew for Any Body

by Pati Palmer, Marta Alto, Jeannette Schilling (Illustrator)

"This pattern book features step-by-step instructions on fitting and sewing pants for women of all different body types using the twin techniques of tissue- and fabric-fitting. Important sewing choices are highlighted, including choosing fabrics, selecting appropriate alteration tools, and finding styles that are most flattering. The fit-as-you-sew process of making pants is illustrated with progressive photographs of fitting pants for nine women of different size and shapes. Covered are a variety of styles including non-roll and expandable waistbands; centered, lapped, and invisible zippers; faced and contour waistlines; and cargo, double welt, and simple side seam pockets."

Genres: Sewing, Crafts, Fashion, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

Pati Palmer is driving force behind the Palmer/Pletsch craft publishing company, of dozens of sewing books and how-to DVD’s and creator of eight Palmer/Pletsch sewing notion products, including PerfectFuse™ Interfacings. . Palmer has been designing for The McCall Pattern Co. since 1980, and Vogue prior to that. She has written the guidesheets for 250 patterns and includes fit and sewing tips. She is dubbed The McCall Pattern Company's "Fit Expert." She has been an educator for an interfacing company, a department store buyer, and has conducted seminars throughout North America and Australia. She currently teaches workshops in Portland, Oregon where she trains consumers and teachers.

Reviews

[Magadored wants to extrude your face normals · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this a tentative rating of 3 stars, seeing as I have yet to make a pair of pants using the techniques in this book.

The good:

- It has lots of information on how to decode wrinkles and a wealth of pictures showing what they mean. My pastime has now become analyzing other people's pants and trying to figure out where they need alterations.

- No gimmicks. The crotch is the hardest part of pants to fit. Pati and Maria have a section covering the various techniques they've tried to perfect crotch fitting (such as the weighted measuring tape with dongle) but ultimately their technique comes down to: are there wrinkles or not? This makes sense to me more than wrapping foil around your cooch, or drawing a million lines across your butt and trying to get them all to intersect just so.

- Easy alterations. Half the fit problems in this book are solved by simply yanking up the waistband at various points and drawing a new waistline. Fabric pooling at darts ends? Yank it. Smile lines? Yank it (then let out the crotch seam.) Lopsided? Yank it! It was really amazing to me how simple and effective this technique is. Draping on the body has always been a much more agreeable way for me to figure out fit than using a lot of measurements and geometry.

- Good information regarding the ease changes for various styles of pants. I did not know about jean's crotches being close fitting as to avoid saddle sores, for instance.

- Lots of little tips on things from fabric choice to how to style your body proportionately.


The bad:

- Emphasis on one kind of pant style. This is bad for two reasons: 1) They fit the same style of pant over and over, only really deviating once with a pair of stretch pants; 2) It's an extremely dated style of pant that tries really hard to hide a woman's butt. Modern pant trends are more slim fit.

- Emphasis on tissue fitting (related to pants style.) The butt camouflaging pants hang straight down from the largest part of the body (butt or tummy) to the floor. This makes for a wide legged pant with minimal tapering (it kind of makes you look like an ice cream cone.) I wonder how you're supposed to tissue fit a modern pant is shaped to your body. I don't think it would work due to tissue having no drape or stretch.

- Emphasis on one kind of shape. Nearly all of the ladies in this book are on the larger side and extremely pear or apple shaped. Women who aren't won't get to see many of they alterations they might need. It would've been nice if there were more diversity in age and weight, because as the book points out, our bodies tend to change in shape and size as we get older.

[Riley]

I'm DNF'ing this because a) the whole concept of tissue fitting makes my brain hurt a little, and b)
I hate the way they talk about bodies. I'm really hoping that Jenny Rushmore's Ahead of the Curve will be a bit more straightforward and body neutral when it comes out next month.

[Umi · Rating 3 out of 5]

good to know that very slim petite women are not real people, but i didn’t really want to make 90s mom pants anyway i guess

i know that’s unnecessarily snarky but where’s the guide to fitting tiny mod pants for tiny mod ladies? ARE SMALL PEOPLE WHO WANT TO DRESS LIKE IT’S 1958 NOT DESERVING OF PANT FITTING GUIDANCE?! Someday my fave glad-i-stopped-by-this-random-souvenir-shop-in-little-tokyo-on-the-way-from-picking-up-ghost-town-at-tower-records-to-seeing-the-go-go’s-at-madame-wong’s trousers will give out (i know, those are early 80s references, but the trousers themselves are early 60s but i think early 60s people wore them for like ? sukiyaki parties ? and early 80s people found them in the back of the store and wore them to be photographed by ann summa and early 00s people maybe didn’t care that much because early 20s people (me) were able to buy three pairs a few years ago and wear them all the time) and i would like to be prepared, and also to stop feeling like 🙃🥴😰 as i try to fit a pair of trousers with which i’ve been contending ALMOST ALL SUMMER (ironing like two yards of fabric into 1/2 pleats for a kind-of replica of that dress jean seberg wears in breathless was nowhere near this taxing!! what gives!!). Why is sewing pants like the easiest thing ever but fitting them the most emotionally draining!!

ok i’m done now, when i unearth the perfect guide to making non-stretch trousers from 1963 i’ll be sure to share with the class

[Tlotem · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of pictures and drawings that help understand some issues we can meet while fitting trousers. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for me to have a good pair of trousers!

[Tububa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, the styles are dated. They managed to make their two young women models look 15 years older by putting them in those "slacks". I was also amused that half of "real people", men, got a rather brief afterthought chapter, and that the only fit issues they address are flat butt and "bay window" (wtf? we call it a beer gut, and nobody I asked had ever heard the term "bay window"). To say that men do not have other pant fitting issues just reveals their slant toward a particular demographic. Sure, if most patterns and RTW are drafted for younger, slimmer women, then older women will encounter fit problems, and this book certainly serves that demographic well. But go on a bodybuilding or powerlifting forum, and you'll see multiple discussions of pants being too tight in the thigh and butt, or calves. I mean, I can reason my way to how one would fix this (use larger size, take them in at the waist) but it's something that a less experienced seamstress would benefit from seeing pointed out.

Also, while the jean sewing instructions are actually pretty good, I was appalled by how ugly their light blue sample was.

The fitting tips are actually quite useful. Even if you do not come away with a full grasp of how to read every wrinkle and how to solve every problem, this book gives you a toolkit for addressing the problems through trial and error. Many people lose their wits at the point where tissue fitting is discussed. You could certainly skip that step and proceed to a muslin fitting instead. They use a particular system, and it is designed for using their own Palmer-Pletsch patterns, which work fine with it. If you're trying to glean how to fit pants you drafted yourself, say, you can still use their general approach:

1. Use large seam allowances;
2. Pin-fit before you do any stitching;
3. Adjustments at the waistline--namely, yank the pants up or down and adjust the seamline accordingly--are some of the easiest to try, and they should be attempted before messing with the crotch curve.

I wish there was a bit more discussion and examples of fitting pants that are not "1989 office slacks from JC Penney". Some of the frustrations I used to have with pants is that the leg shapes were often off, and it's taken me a while to train my eye for how to fix those problems. But I guess the solution is to just use my head and not hope to find the answer in a book.

I appreciated the section on jumpsuits. Funny how they say a bodice is more difficult to adjust than pants; I think most people would disagree! There are far more resources out there for bodice fitting, it seems, than pants. But they are right.

About a third of the book is dedicated to sewing instructions for various kinds of pockets and styling details. This was of little use to me as there was little that was truly new there, but a less experienced seamstress would probably find it useful to read the whole thing. Much of the value of reading a book, rather than poking around on your own on the internet, is that you will be exposed to a unified approach and learn about things that are out there that you wouldn't have even known to search for before.

The datedness of the book comes through again in the sewing section. They recommend an interfacing called Perfect Waistbands, which does not seem to be available for sale anymore.

Overall, though, I think it would be a mistake to dismiss this book just because certain aspects of it have not aged well. I do not regret reading it.

[Lia Marcoux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very clear and informative, but unfortunately I don't think this fitting technique will work for me (sewing alone) as well as drafting flat pattern changes, which are not addressed here.

[kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The language of the book is sorely outdated, but the fitting advice is solid.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful book for learning how to alter pant patterns to sew pants that fit your body shape.

For a book that cover other types of clothing patterns see The Perfect Fit (Singer Sewing Reference Library).

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG! This book changed my life. The techniques described will allow even a novice sew-er to make perfect fitting pants. I even used the techniques to alter skirts. I highly recommend to anyone who makes their own clothes.

[Meigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another must-have book on your sewing reference shelf. Fitting trousers is challenging and perfecting fit is even more challenging. Pants for Real People is full of fitting information for people of all shapes and sizes.

[Casey Schacher Gibbons · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely thorough reference book. Detailed fitting instructions, include how to identify problems with fitting (i.e. what they look like). I bought it after reading a library copy so I could always have it on hand.

[Jane]

I think it was this pants book....it had a really helpful diagram for drafting a curved waistband. I didn't end up needing it, but it was good reference.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish they'd do an update that includes some more current styles. Or maybe a supplement.