New Shorts pattern

I've worked a lot over the years on getting a pants sloper to fit me just right.  I've tried numerous different techniques but every time I think I've got it something happens and suddenly they don't seem to fit any more - it's really quite frustrating.

So when the weather started to warm up and I realised that I have no shorts that fit anymore I figured it was about time to try again.    Normally all my pants patterns are based on getting pants to fit snugly around the bum and thighs, but for shorts I want the thighs to be a bit looser - so this time I'm going for more of a trouser fit rather than a jeans fit.

I started my design with an online tutorial for pants sloper by Don McCunn.  I followed this tutorial and ended up with a front to my sloper that looks really good, but unfortunately the back sloper tutorial is not available online.  I may have to look at buying it if I can, but in the mean time I just tried to use the same principals to do the same thing for the back.

I created a pattern and sewed up a muslin using a gingham check pattern.  The front seemed to be fine.

But the back was definitely not,  the main problem being the gusset between front and back.  There just wasn't enough room which meant that the back leg twisted really badly to the inside.  So I started to add a gusset in.

It was still twisting but not quite so badly now.

So I added more, and more and more until I finally got it to the point where the back of the pants hung straight.

I added this gusset onto my pattern. You can see below that I added about 2.5" to the leg width and 2.5"to the crotch length - which resulted in an additional 4"at the mid thigh region.

At this point I was willing to try the pattern with some better fabric.  I had a small amount of wool suiting fabric and decided to start with that.

I cut the pattern as shown above, then ended up taking 4"off the length.  I added a front pocket by cutting the front piece off at the angle.  Using a  strip of self fabric to bind the cut edge and then adding a single layer pocket bag behind the front piece and stitching it directly to the front with two rows of top stitching.

 

A 1" wide waistband with elastic  was added to the top and a 3/8" double turned hem at the bottom.

I'm quite happy with the way these sit at the back.

But I'm not totally sure what happened at the front.  I think it has to do with the hem.

This is one of the better photos:

But this is more like the reality:  Lots of creases around the front crotch.

These are pretty good but I wanted to make a few changes before making a second pair.  First to the center back seam.  At the moment the dart in the back was in the center back of my pants so I wanted to move it over and have the center back seam straight and the dart over the biggest part of my butt.  I also chopped the 4" off the pattern and straightened out the bottom inch to allow for a better hem.

I was then ready for my second attempt. This time in a grey linen.   These pants hang a lot better. 

  I added a center front fly to this which was probably a waste of time - and it took me forever as I kept getting everything wrong and having to unpick and start again. 

I did a normal pocket bag and a more curved pocket this time.

Again I added elastic to my waistband - but then my snap didn't work and I ended up sewing the waistband closed - so now the front fly really is redundant.  Of well!

So these are a lot better, however there is still a little bit of puckering around the front crotch curve.

I may need to try one more iteration of this pattern, but I'm just not sure what to do to get that area to sit properly.  I'd also like to try tapering the bottom of the legs in just a bit and see what happens.