Madrone Pants: Adjust the Rise

When sewing your own pants – and getting a great fit to your unique self – consider adjusting the rise. “Rise” (aka “crotch depth”) is the distance from the crotch seam up to the top of the waistband. It basically determines how high the pants sit.

We have several lessons on rise adjustments in our online Learn to Fit and Sews Pants class, but here’s some specific help if you want to adjust the rise on our Madrone Pants sewing pattern. A little fancy footwork helps the pockets stay where they belong!

If you’ve made other Sew Liberated patterns, know that the Madrone crotch curve is similar to the Chanterelle Pants. If you made crotch curve adjustments to the Chanterelle, you may want to repeat those on the Madrone.

On the other hand, the Madrone crotch is quite different from our Arthur Pants, which has a dropped crotch, so don’t try to apply Arthur fitting to this pattern.

Embrace the Ease of the Madrone Pants

The Madrone Pants are designed to have A LOT of ease! Not only does this extra space make it easy to move in these pants, it also adds instant fun to an outfit, with a bold silhouette.

Embrace it and make your size according to the charts. Let your hip be the determining factor. (Elastic + drawstring will take care of the waist.)

If, after all that encouragement, you still REALLY want to reduce the ease by sizing down, I wrote another blog post on how to do that. (HINT: you have to blend sizes because simply sizing down will cause crotch fitting issues. Ouch!)

Consider making a muslin.

Muslins are like rough drafts. They let you practice construction, confirm your size, and check your fit before you cut into the good fabric. 

Measure Your Rise

The rise measurement on your body is taken seated for this pattern. While it’s helpful to have the data on the crotch depth, I personally rely far more on the muslin than my measuring tape to nail down this measurement.

Compare the measurement that you took to the Finished Measurements chart. You need the garment to measure larger than your body, for ease. The amount of ease you’re looking for is about ½” to 1” (1.3-2.5 cm). 

Adjusting Madrone

When you know by what amount you need to change the rise, you can get to work. You’ll see that the pattern pieces don’t have a lengthen-shorten line above the crotch. This is intentional, since it’s the part of the adjustment that strays from the average. The lengthen-shorten line needs to dodge some of the details, namely the Back Pocket and the Front Pocket. 

The pattern pieces are oriented so that they form a complete right leg when joined as if sewn, with the labels facing out. This means that you can lay them out to visualize, since they are unusual shapes, and draw in your lengthen/shorten line. 

From left to right, draw your line on the:

Center Back from above the double notch then curving down to below the opposite double notch

Side Back from below the double notch to above the double notch

Upper Side Panel from above the double notch to below the top two pocket notches (ignore the lower pocket notch for now)

Side Front from below the pocket notches to a few inches below the waist notches

Center Front straight across below the waist notches and above the center front crotch notch. 

Extend the grainline on any piece that needs it, so it crosses the cut line by a few inches.

Cut on the lengthen/shorten line of all five pieces. 

To Lengthen

• Mark a grainline on new paper, and parallel lines the distance of the change. You’ll need 5 pieces of paper prepared

• Move the pattern pieces apart and position them on the new paper, aligning the grainlines and placing the cut lines on the parallel lines

• Tape the pieces in place
• Blend the lines

• True up new edges (match up the pattern pieces to make sure they fit). 
• Align all of the pocket pieces and adjust if needed. You’ll need to mark in a new pocket notch for the bottom of the Pocket. 

To Shorten

• Mark a line on the grainline below the Lengthen/Shorten line, by the distance of the change

• Overlap the cut pieces, ensuring the lower part of the pattern goes under the upper portion so the pocket details are all still visible

• Tape the pieces in place
• Blend the lines, making the changes needed without disturbing the pockets

• True up new edges (match up the pattern pieces to make sure they fit). 
• Align all of the pocket pieces and adjust if needed. You’ll need to mark in a new pocket notch for the bottom of the Pocket. 

From here, your newly personalized pattern pieces are ready to continue with your Madrone Pants project! Happy sewing!