Fitting Underwear: Full Tummy Adjustment

I’ve already covered pattern alterations for adjusting the rise for a different torso length, which affects both the front and back rise length.  But what do we do when the back rise length is good, and the front rise dips too low?  

​Problem: The back rise fits well, but the front rise dips too low 

​Symptoms: The front rise dips down much lower than the back rise.  

​This can be due to a full tummy or anterior pelvic tilt.  Either way, we need more fabric at the front to bring the rise up closer to waist level.

​Solution: Add length to the front rise and blend into the waistline at the side seams or back waist.

​Before we begin, I want to show you my basic block for panties, which I draft all my patterns from.  You can see the waist guideline as the dashed grey line.  The back rise is ½” below the guideline, and the front rise is 1” below the guideline; these are just standard measurements. It would probably be uncomfortable to have the waistlines land straight across the body at waist level, so that is why they dip down slightly and curve gently over to the side seams.

​If you have already made a pair of undies, and want to adjust the length for your next pair, just measure from the top of the waistband at the center front up to where you want the new waistline to be.  There are two methods for raising the waistline.  The first will work for adjustments up to 1”.

Method #1: Raising the waist up to 1"

For this exercise, let’s say we want to add 3/4” to the front rise length. 

• Add some paper behind your front pattern piece.  Square a guideline continuing up from the center front. 
• Mark up 3/4" along this line for the new waistline. 
• ​Square across for about 1/2” along this line, so we don’t end up with a strange point at the center front, then draw a curved line blending into the side seam.  

This is your new Front pattern piece. 

​My original panty block has the front waistline lowered 1" from the waist guideline, so ​we can’t use this method for an adjustment of more than 1”; it would be impossible to keep the center front line square and blend into the side seam.  If you need to raise the waistline more than 1", continue reading to method #2.

Method #2: Raising the waist more than 1"

If you need to add more than 1”, it is necessary to raise the side seams a bit as well.  For this exercise we will need to adjust the back pattern piece along with the front.  Let’s assume we need to raise the front waist 2”. 

​Overlap the front and back pieces at the stitching lines at the top and bottom of the side seams.  The curves of the side seams will overlap.  When I am making alterations that cross seam lines, I find it helpful to cut off the seam allowances and then add them back in at the end.  It just creates less confusion about where the seam lines are.  

• Just as before, square a guideline continuing up from the center front. 
• Mark up 2” along the guideline for the new waistline. 
• Square across for about ½” along this line, then draw a slightly curved line and blend into the back waist. There isn’t any hard rule about where to blend; just be sure that there aren't any sharp curves and that the center back waist is squared to the center back for at least ½”. 

• Mark the side seam on the new waistline.
• Re-draw the side seam for the front piece. 
• Trace the new Front piece onto another piece of paper.  The image below shows the original outline of the Front piece as a dashed line, for reference.

• Re-draw the side seam for the back piece.
• Trace the new Back piece onto another piece of paper.  The image below shows the original outline of the Back piece as a dashed line, for reference.

​

• Lay the front and back pieces on top of each other and check to make sure the side seam curves match. 
• Add the seam allowances to the side seam.

There you have it!  Two methods for raising the front rise.  

Are there any other panty fitting alterations you'd like to see?  Leave me a comment below.  Until next time, happy sewing!