A friend who sews commissioned me to trace a pattern off a pair of her husband's favorite twill pants. I was expecting something pretty straightforward, but the back crotch had an interesting gusset detail (no wonder he likes them as they are an unusual style and probably fit differently that regular styles!).

The front leg was easy to trace. So were all the pockets and drawstring waistband. Even the crotch gusset was pretty easy because it was small enough to lay flat on paper.

But that back leg with all the curves and angles - THAT was a completely different story! I walked away at least three times and came back to it later. Nothing I was tracing out was matching up to the measurements of the actual pants.

Eventually, I remembered I had some Glad Press 'n Seal wrap. So I stuck some to the back leg and traced the seams with a sharpie. I did it twice (since I had to piece the first plastic trace right in the area that was giving me so much grief) and stacked the plastic traces on top of one of my paper traces.

I finally got it close enough that I was comfortable passing it off for her to use. She said the mockup she made was pretty close and he was happy. Whew!

Swipe for some pics and let me know if you have any specific questions in the comments.

#patternmaking