Pants Fitting: Grading between sizes (Persephone Pants)

 "What size do I pick if I have a larger waist size than hip size and can I grade between sizes?"

I often get asked this, and the simple answer is yes indeed you can! Even though the Persephone pants have no side seams, you can still grade between sizes. You will be grading at the front of the pants as well as the back of the pants, disregarding the side body area. I recommend sticking with one to two sizes apart. You can also let out the back darts for more room if needed. 

FULLER WAIST TO HIP GRADING
Example: 14 waist/10 hips. Start at size 14 at the waist front/back and move down to size 10 at the end of the front crotch extension as well as the back notches. Continue down the leg for size 10, unless your thighs match size 14, in which case you would grade out, starting at the front and back crotch point and moving down the leg. Cut size 14 waistband and fly pattern pieces.

If you need to grade from a smaller waist to hip size, this essentially works the same (in reverse). The only difference is that you might consider adding side body darts in addition to grading between sizes, especially if you are more than one or two sizes apart.

SMALLER WAIST TO HIP GRADING
Example: 10 waist/14 hips. Start at size 10 at the waist front/back and move out to size 14 at the end of the front crotch extension as well as the back notches. Continue down the leg for size 14, unless your thighs match size 10, in which case you would grade in, starting at the front and back crotch point and moving down the leg. Cut size 10 waistband and fly pattern pieces.

For the waistband and fly pattern pieces, choose the size based on your waist size.

How to professionally hem your jeans (in about 15 minutes)!

I am 5’5” and although that may be considered an average height, I’ve found through the years that most jean lengths end up being too long on me. I really hate always having to roll up my jeans, or worse, being forced to let them scrunch up around my ankles. So I have experimented with different ways to hem my jeans and have finally found an easy way that doesn’t look like my jeans have been hemmed. And it hardly takes any time, which means my jeans won't be sitting on a mending pile for months before I get around to hemming them. It really only takes about 15 minutes!

Start by trying on your jeans and folding the hem up to where you want them. Place a safety-pin or get someone to measure how much you folded. Now remove the jeans and refold them so they measure half the length you folded when trying them on. For instance, let’s say you folded 4” when trying them on to reach the perfect length, now you should pin them at 2”.

Pin the fold at the side seams and then at each center. Stitch just below the stitching line of the original hem. Basically you want to get as close to the original hem as possible, but don’t stitch on top of the original hem. Also, you will want to slightly stretch the original hem between each side seam, as I’ve found with tapered jeans the original hemline may be slightly smaller around.

Now turn the fold towards the inside of the jeans and try them on to make sure you like the length. If not, remove the stitching and adjust until it’s at the place you want it to be. This part is really worth a little extra time, because you won’t be able to adjust the length once you finish hemming.

Now cut off the extra fabric to about ¼” (I cut it to ½” but then found it rather difficult to serge over the thick side seams).

Finish the raw edge with your serger or if you have a basic sewing machine, just zig-zag over the edge so it won’t ravel when you wash it.

Turn the seam inside pointing up and press with a hot iron. I like to sew a few stitches up and down right on top of the side seams on either side. This way after washing the jeans, they really stay put and when you wear them the hem won’t flip out accidentally.

That’s it! It’s really that simple. And no one will notice you hemmed your jeans!

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial! 

xoxo