Pants fitting – the mystery of the back thigh wrinkles solved!

I have been sewing a few more Tierras, I really like this pattern! I shaved some of the leg width, and ended up making a straight size 8, making low butt adjustment and flat but adjustment (by making the pointy part a bit shorter)- they fit really well now, even though I could make a small full butt adjustment (!!!! adding room in the mid-buttock area). I really don’t have a flat butt at all; I have a low, full butt, so I often need to add a bit in the middle, removing a bit depth in the crotch. Well, that is why I male my own clothes!

While making all these adjustments i made short length, as to not waste too much fabric. And, heureka!!!! Suddenly I saw it. And took a lot of pictures! Look at this:

I noticed how I was standing – at an angel, leaning forward. I had the wrinkly stuff going on at my back thigh. When I straightened up, the wrinkles disappeared! WOW! These back thighs wrinkles have nothing to do with my Kermit-ness, or my thin back thighs or any other reason I have imagined – they are caused by bad posture! Crazy!

From the back:

This makes so much sense, when thinking of the 3D stuff going on – the pants falling nicely when standing straight, but hitting the leg and folding when I stand forward leaning! Og well, not an easy fix for this, changing my posture will be crazy difficult. But at least now I can stop the pursuit of a reason for these wrinkles 🙂

There is one adjustment I have found to totally remove these wrinkles; it is actually a flat butt adjustment (see below sketch). The trouble is, I don’t have a flat butt. So if I make this adjustment, the pants are too tight across my butt and I can hardly move. The remedy? To do the opposite alteration, adding fabric here.. I guess it is because I only need this alteration when I stand sloping foreward; the second I start to move/ sit down, I will have too little fabric at my butt.

So, now I just need to decide what length for shorts look best on me; I prefer “comfortably long” shorts, no hot pants for me, but I am not quite sure which of these two lengths look best on me. (Update: I opted for the shorter version – sun and wind on my thighs!).