When I bought the black and blue checked ponte to make a pair of pants I didn't have the pattern with me, so I bought over two meters because I know that's what I need for a pair of jeans. Of course I wasn't thinking that denim usually comes 45" wide and the ponte was 60" wide. Therefore I found I had enough fabric left over to get myself a second pair. To be fair I considered saving it to make a pair for daughter post-pregnancy but with her long legs there wouldn't be quite enough fabric. I have another length of ponte, a charcoal plaid, that I may be able to work a pair for each of us out of if I plan for that from the beginning.
Anyway, I made a second pair of Lutterloh 282-249 with a couple of changes. I am having a hard time seeing the fit on
the first pair, because the fabric is dark and the lighting is not very good in my dressing room. I changed the lightbulbs and saw that I have a fair bit of wrinkling under my butt, and that if I pull up the back of the pants the wrinkles are reduced. I then slashed and pivoted to reduce the back seam by 1". This definitely gives me a shaplier fit over the seat; even a slight wedgie. So I am going to try and fine tune that for future pants.
I took comparison pics with these beige ponte pants I made some time ago. I'm not sure if I used a Style Arc pattern or New Look 6977 as I played with both patterns then and have a black pair in each, and silly me didn't blog about it to have a record. Anyway there is more of an angle on the back seam of the New Look pattern compared to the Lutterloh pattern, and I wonder if this is what gives the beige pair a better fit over the seat. I also moved the pockets towards the centre seam by 1", which I think looks better. I made no other fitting changes but these ones do seem slightly snugger than the first pair, which could be down to cutting accurate seam allowances (or not) when the pattern pieces don't have that built in.
Aside from shortening them to a 30.5" inseam (I think 31" is going to be my goal for inseams for now on), the other change I made was to use zippers instead of buttons at the cuffs. I used Heat Bond to stabilize the facings and prevent stretching when sewing the zips on. I really like the look (thanks for the idea Mom!) and I even got a few compliments when I wore them the other day. With this 3" wide elastic waistband they are probably the most comfortable pair of pants I own. I can see myself wearing them a lot and using this as my tried and true knit pants pattern once I sort out the seat fitting.
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