How to Grade Between Sizes: Blending Waist, Hip, Bust, and Thigh
Introduction
Hi there! I’m Devorah and I sew pretty much everything that I wear. I also provide most of the clothing for my son and husband’s wardrobes.
Since I ventured back into sewing in 2020 I have learned so much and want to share some of that knowledge with you.
Adjusting Patterns
One of the benefits of sewing your own wardrobe is being able to get the fit just right – or at least better than store bought.
Take my son for example. He is over 6 feet tall with long legs and a slim build. In order to get commercially made pants that fit his leg length he often has to resort to the waist being two or three sizes larger than he needs.
I also have some fitting issues with my extra long arms and legs and sizing differences between bust, waist and hips.
This is where the ability to sew comes in handy.
Today I am going to explain how to do basic grading on a pair of pants and a tee shirt.
Grading Waist to Hip to Thigh: The Stephan Straight Leg Cargo Pants
My son’s measurements put him into an Ellie and Mac medium at his waist, a small for his hips and an extra small for his thighs and calves. Since his thighs and calves are in the same pattern size I do not have to grade beyond his thighs.
Thankfully the Stephan Straight Leg Cargo Pants have adjustment points already on the pattern making the process straight forward.
For the purpose of this blog post I traced off a fresh copy of the pattern. I am a projector sewist and have not yet mastered the skills needed to adjust patterns on the computer so anything with lots of adjustments gets traced out and worked on paper.
The outermost grey line represents the size medium. The coral line is the small size and the innermost grey line is the extra small size.
First and Second Pants Adjustment: Waist to Hip
Using my hip curve ruler I line it up so that it goes from just under the top edge on the medium and angle it to the small size at the hip adjustment line. Then I play a little with the curve until it makes me happy. (This is a subjective curve and will vary from person to person.)
I do this on the rise side first and on the hip side second. The order doesn’t matter, I was just working from right to left.
Waist to Hip adjustment on rise side with ruler:
Waist to Hip adjustment on rise side new line drawn:
Waist to hip adjustment on hip side:
Waist to hip adjustment on hip side new line drawn:
Third and Fourth Pants adjustment: Hip to Thigh
Next up is making the thigh narrower so that he doesn’t swim in them.
Now I am starting with the small size and grading to the extra small.
Placing my hip curve ruler at the bottom of the rise on the left for the small size, I draw a visually pleasing curve to the where the thigh adjustment line intersects the extra small size.
Then I repeat the process on the other side but starting at the hip adjustment point.
Hip to Thigh adjustment, rise side with ruler:
Hip to Thigh adjustment, rise side with new line:
Hip to Thigh adjustment, hip side with ruler:
Hip to Thigh adjustment, hip side with new line:
Finally, I go over the adjusted pattern lines in a darker color so I know where to cut the pattern out.
Final, darker, pattern:
Ta Da!
My son in his Stephan Straight Leg Cargo Pants:
Grading Bust to Waist to Hips: The Jessica Tee and Dress
To start off I am going to trace the three sizes I am working with onto paper. My apologies for using different paper than I did for the pants, I ran out. Extra large is drawn in grey, Large is drawn in coral and medium is drawn in grey.
My measurements put me into a large for my bust (no full bust adjustment needed), an extra large for my waist and a medium for my hips. For some patterns you might not need to adjust for the hips – I do not bother for my Breezys – but I like the Jessica more fitted. (Find the Jessica Tee & Dress Pattern here!)
Taking my curved ruler I put one part on the bottom of the armscye at the large line and another point on the extra large line where the pattern starts curving back out for the hips. I wiggle the ruler around a bit until I like how the curve looks and then draw it onto the paper.
Bust to Waist with ruler:
Bust to Waist after drawing:
Grading Waist to Hips
Next is the Waist to hip adjustment.
From where I stopped the previous adjustment I take my ruler and angle it from the extra large to the medium size, stopping just before the pattern angles in for the hem. This is where I mess up when free handing this right off of the projection and hence why I now trace off a pattern I think I will make more than once.
Waist to Hip with ruler:
Waist to Hip after drawing:
Finally I mark the entire new pattern in black so that I don’t mess up when cutting it out.
Final pattern:
Ta Da!
The Jessica Tee and Dress with my own machine embroidery:
Conclusion
Grading does not have to be intimidating. It is a series of steps joining one size to the next.
Don’t be afraid to try it and don’t be afraid to mess up. We learn through experience and messing up is a part of learning so if you do mess up, take a step back, have a cup of tea and come back another day. Your mind will be clearer and your brain will have had time to figure it out a bit better.
Happy Sewing!
- Written by Devorah Zamansky
@devorahzamansky on Threads and Instagram
