Today, we’re showing you how to lengthen or shorten the rise on pants!
How to adjust the rise on pants
Everyone’s body—including torso length and proportions—are different, so the same pair of pants can look visually very different on different people, despite having the same rise! However, the wonder of sewing is that you can adjust any pattern to fit your needs, and that includes the rise, which is the length of the trousers from crotch to waistband.
First up, evaluate where the current rise of your pants pattern will hit you by making a muslin and trying it on. If the rise is where you’d like it, great! If you need to lengthen or shorten, we’re here to help.
Top tip: only checking the fit of the pelvis? Make your muslin as shorts to save fabric and sewing time.
How to shorten the rise on pants
Step 1: Calculate how much you want to shorten the rise by. Simply measure down on the muslin to where you would like the top of the waistband to sit. You should measure this on the front and the back as you can make the adjustments different if you’d like. For instance, if you have a sloping waist, you may reduce the rise more on the back than the front to make it even.
Step 2: On the front leg piece, draw lines evenly above and below the lengthen/shorten line so you now have two lines as far apart as the amount you need to remove, centered over the lengthen/shorten line.
Step 3: Cut the pattern on these lines, bring the two halves together making sure to match the grainlines. Smooth the lines at the cut.
Step 4: Repeat step 2 with your back leg piece.
How to lengthen the rise on pants
Step 1: Calculate how much you want to lengthen the rise by. Simply measure up from the muslin to where you would like the top of the waistband to sit. You should measure this on the front and the back as you can make the adjustments different if you’d like.
Step 2: On the front leg piece, cut across the lengthen/shorten line.
Step 3. On a piece of paper, draw two parallel lines that are the distance apart that you need to lengthen by.
Step 4: Tape the two pattern pieces on each line, making sure that the grainline is still lining up across them.
Step 5: Repeat step 2 with your back leg piece.
And that’s it! Fabulous work adjusting the rise of your pants. Now it’s time to cut your fabric and start sewing!
Very detailed and good information but I would love to see a video on fitting a “hanging stomach” or did you address this in your pants fitting class? This is a problem that I have not been able to adequately address; my daughter is over 300lbs and I want to make her pants that don’t “hug” her large stomach only emphasizing it’s size, also with shorts the inside seam pulls up when she walks which is not a good look, help! I signed up for your pants class but haven’t gone through class yet; I wanted to quickly check out the blog posts first.
This is helpful! What to do if the adjustment is different on the front & back pieces though? In my case I want to shorten the front rise but not the back rise on your Calder pants
If you want to shorten only the front rise you can use the same basic method, but instead of taking the full amount out across the entire front, make it a wedge, so it’s the amount you need at the front tapering to nothing at the side seam. In the first image above, the red lines will start at the same place on the crotch seam, but taper in to meet at the lengthen shorten line at the side seam. This way you take the length you need out of the front, but the side seam stays the same so it will match the original back piece.