Burda Style For people who sew

Trousers (or pants or slacks) require their own block, distinct from the basic blouse block and the dress block, presented earlier, Here I present detailed, step-by-step instructions for preparing a custom-fitted trouser block for women. A man's trouser block is slightly different, although not dramatically so - it is possible to work with a women's trouser block and adjust it somewhat to get a fit to a man's body.

As in my earlier techniques, you will need a ruler about a meter long, a smaller ruler, a sharp pencil, and a French curve (or dinner plate!). A calculator is useful, in addition. You will also need a set of body measurements (waist, hips, waist-to-hip distance, waist-to-ground distance, body rise (distance from the waist to the chair when you are sitting down), and waist-to-knees distance. With the first four measurments, the others can be estimated.

This block construction method has been adapted from the following excellent reference :
Winifred Aldrich, Metric Pattern Cutton for Women's Wear, 5th ed., Blackwell Publishing: Oxford, 2008, 215 pp.

Technique Materials

paper or cardboard, ruler, pencil, calculator, French curve (or dinner plate), set of body measurements

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10 Comments

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  Sep 3, 2009, 04.27 PMby yasuali

  hi, can u tell me how to cutting and stitching mermaid skirt. waiting for ur reply
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  Aug 29, 2009, 10.26 PMby kimberley28

  Hello gedwoods,

  thanks for the instructions. I’m constructing the basic in Adobe Illustrator first before I print it out. I must say, it looks pretty strange. I’m 153 cm (about 5’2") and have gotten a very extreme form, especially in the back leg below the crutch.

  The inseam point at the crutch (Point Y) is at about a 63° angle to Point AB (Parallel difference of 7,53 cm). The outerseam from Point AD to Point Z is at a 73° angle. (a parallel difference of 6,77cm). (Looking at the drawing makes me think of toddler’s pants!).

  Assuming that I didn’t carry over the wrong measurements anywhere (I’d written them down according to a Burda Magazine and noted any calculations that had to be used on the pdf-print-out.), can the drawing be correct? Unfortunately, I can’t upload a screenshot to this post.

  Maybe I should also add, that my inseam length is 72cm (about 28 1/3").

  What can I do to insure that the angles aren’t so extreme in the block, while ensuring good fit & a good fall in the fabric? Should I reset Point AD more towards the right, thus changing the slope? I’d be grateful for any help that you can give me.
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  Aug 18, 2009, 01.24 PMby ana555

  gedwoods, what is the difference for men? i assume the darts are gone and the legs are straighter. would the math stay the same? i am looking to create mens jeans for my husband and if i get it down i would also use it for my son, he is 9 and tall and thin. we have a hard time getting jeans that fit for him too.
  thank you for your technique, ana555

  1 Reply

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    Aug 19, 2009, 09.55 PMby gedwoods

    The differences are subtle – as you say, the darts go but that’s often automatic given the waist to hip size anyway. I sometimes use a block for men but I’ve also made pants for myself using the women’s block. I believe there is a slight difference in the ratio of forward to back crutch length – women tend to roll their pelvis further forward than do men, but the one can get away with a women’s block. Since I make a muslin for first efforts, I adjusted the fit on the muslin before finalizing the pattern. Also, there may be differences in the embellishments – men usually want pockets to be fairly standard, whereas with women you can introduce greater variation. I’ve been experimenting in pants for myself with changing the cuffs at the bottom of the legs, though. If you do a muslin before finalizing your measurements, you can’t go wrong.

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  Aug 18, 2009, 10.23 AMby diudanghatnang

  great
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  Aug 18, 2009, 06.37 AMby silverrowan

  I must have missed something then, I took at least 15cm out of the crotch curve in the front! befuddled me for a while until I figured it out!
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  Aug 14, 2009, 01.44 PMby gedwoods

  I should add that the blocks often require additional adjustments to get a perfect fit. I usually make a muslin shell and check, but I’ve gotten lazy over time because I’ve found the fit to be systematically good enough that I can make the necessary adjustments on the final garment. But every body is different, and some adjustments are to be expected…
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  Aug 14, 2009, 01.39 PMby gedwoods

  Wow I’ve never seen anything like that and I’ve made several pairs for different people. The instructions should indeed account for the difference in crutch length front and back. If you look at the construction, you can see that the waist construction of the back leg causes 2 centimeters to be added to the crutch length, and because the curve leans back further than for the front leg, you gain additional centimeters in the back length. I also usualy add in a small modification to give additional ease to the pants, especially at the back – essentially, cut the back leg pattern from about halfway up the crutch line to the back of the pants near the hip line (but don’t cut completely through), then using the back point as a pivot, rotate the top piece up so that you add a few centimeters to the back crutch line. I hesitated to include this variation in the basic instruction, as I saw it as a variant, but, again, your comments suggest it should probably be directly incorporated. I will make the change into the instructions, but you could try this…
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  Aug 13, 2009, 11.01 PMby silverrowan

  O_o glad to help.

  I’ve made rough muslin garment now, and it originally fit horribly in the front – either I missed where it does, or these instructions neglect to account for the difference in crotch length of the pants between front and back
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  Aug 11, 2009, 03.38 PMby gedwoods

  Hello silverrowan, your question led me to check back on my measurements. The relevant measurement is the body rise, not the crutch depth – I’ve corrected the Technique for this. I have always used the body rise measurement and had assumed that the crutch depth as measured on the body was the same – however, a little thought will show that the crutch depth will be larger than the body rise, as it follows the curve of the body. The body rise is hence the correct measurement, not the crutch depth as I originally indicated. The crutch depth line is still correctly named, however – essentially, the crutch depth measurement corresponds to the curved section on the top left of the block. Thanks for the question, allowing me to clear that up!
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  Aug 11, 2009, 12.24 AMby silverrowan

  when you say waist measurement, do you mean natural waist or pant-top waist?

  (I’m trying to figure out how my crutch depth could be 10cm off calculated, when ready to wear doesn’t fit me too badly)