Advice Needed About Sewing Trousers

Your photo is not showing to me but I wonder if the extra width is so that you can make a fly zip.

That's a tricky one! I wonder if you could pinch out (and pin) the excess fabric, then unpick your toile (except for the pinched out bit) and use it to cut a new front which would be narrower .
It took me many trial runs to refine a trouser pattern - then I stupidly put on weight and they no longer fit!

'Susie42', there is already a fly zip, sorry you couldn't see the picture.

'eddicat78', a good idea to unpick the toile and re-cut. Making trousers that fit well is certainly a challenge, but I really want to stick with it until I've got it right. Such a shame yours no longer fits. I think that's why I want to get my head around how it actually works so that if I get fatter or thinner I can work out how to get it right another time.

Without physically looking at these in person I’d hazard a guess that the ‘curve’ seam line at the front is not cut out enough, hence the extra fabric around the lover edge of the zip.
Without being offensive, what is the crotch area like? Does that fit ok or is it bulky with extra fabric?

I think that I had the same problem with a pair of trousers now too small !
I made three narrow tapering darts from the waist band to each side of the crotch to take out the bulk.
It was fiddly,but worth it.

'Astitchintime'. Not offensive at all, the crotch actually seems fine, it's just the extra fabric above that seems to be the problem.

Have you tried clicking on the small picture, as it comes up bigger if you do, and then you can see the problem area more clearly?

The legs are very baggy so a couple of darts from the waistband down should take up the slack. Put them on inside out and play with pins. You could perhaps also shape the side seams a bit better

It does mean unpicking the waistband

'Karmalady' the baggy legs are the style of the pattern, so I wouldn't want to particularly make them much narrower, and bearing in mind that I plan to use a more drapey fabric for the finished trousers, I think that the legs will be OK. However, as you say, I think I probably need to remove the waistband, and then I'll be better able to see where I might need to take them in.

The crotch area looks cut too high to me - if it was a bit lower, the trouser legs would hang better?

LucyAnna5

The crotch area looks cut too high to me - if it was a bit lower, the trouser legs would hang better?

Exactly what I thought. The scoop shouldn’t look like that.

So 'LucyAnna5' and 'petra' would you advise that I cut another toile and make the crotch shelf lower? Not quite sure what you mean by 'scoop'??

I agree about scoop. That's the curve from the waist down to the seam between the legs. I think if you start the actual curve lower down the fabric wont pull between your legs. In fact, I'd probably drop the scoop so it finishes a couple of inches lower.
Do let us know how it goes. Just making a toile into shorts, rather than the full trouser will be quicker.

Thanks for that 'twinnytwin'

Before re-drawing the front crotch seam, you might want to simply try making the front pleats deeper and longer.

Am I right in thinking that the material is some kind of jersey?

To my way of thinking, trousers in stretch fabrics always wrinkle at the lower front - but that may of course be caused by my anatomy!

Hi everyone. First of all thank you for all the suggestions. I've been busy this afternoon, unpicking the waistband, and removing the zip. Having done this, and tried them on inside out, I was able to pin out all of the excess fabric. I then marked it with chalk, stitched it back together, and re-inserted the zip, I have yet to add the waistband, but after a quick try on, it looks like this might have solved the problem. I'll get the waistband back on when I have time, and if all is as I'm hoping, I will try and post another picture. For the poster who asked, the fabric of the toile, is just some old curtain lining that I had tucked away in a cupboard.

There are many video's on Youtube about how to make the adjustments where you need to in order to get a good fit. Just Google it.

Have you got an existing pair of trousers you can use as a template for cutting out a new pair , (you don’t have to cut them up just fold them flat and add a 1cm seam allowance

I'm wondering if you've somehow cut the fabric of the left leg off the straight grain. That would cause it to twist. The right leg looks OK. I've had many a pair of ready to wear jeans where one leg twists inwards. It happens because they cut them with an enormous machine from a huge pile of denim all at once. It's inevitable that many of the layers will be wonky. The advice for home sewers is to cut the pieces on a single layer, not forgetting to reverse each piece so you don't cut the same side twice and end up with two left legs! Measure and mark parallel lines in from the selvedge and make sure you get the grainline on the pattern pieces parallel with your marked lines. You can use tailor's chalk on dark fabrics or coloured frixion pens which disappear with heat from your iron. Some pieces you have to cut on the fold so make sure, by careful measuring, that your fold is parallel with the selvedge.

there are good tips here but have you looked at Youtube for tips?

LucyAnna5

The crotch area looks cut too high to me - if it was a bit lower, the trouser legs would hang better?

I'm no expert but that is exactly what I was thinking. It's ulling the front out of shape.

I’ll just echo what others have said here - the crotch depth is wrong. I haven’t made trousers for years but discovering the importance of this measurement transformed my making. Just google how to measure your crotch depth. (It’s also sometimes called the rise).

There's really useful Utube video of how to adjust trouser patterns to fit; google 'fit your pants (trousers) perfectly'; the video is by Creative Bobbin, & the relevant part for your issue is about 9 minutes in

In answer to those who have suggested Google and YouTube, I've watched so many videos about how to get a good fit with trousers, but couldn't find anything that seemed to clearly address the problem of the area I've pointed to as being too wide.

To those who have mentioned the crotch looking like it's cut too high, do you mean that I should lengthen the front crotch seam?

Thanks 'pennyg', I'll take a look at the video by Creative Bobbin.