In 1973, while teaching pant fitting classes at Meier & Frank department store in Portland, Oregon, I decided to write about the subject. There was virtually nothing written about sewing and fitting pants. My students encouraged me. One night I was lying in bed and closed my eyes to visualize how this book could be laid out. I even dreamed up the title and the cover design. It just came to me.
I have always said that this book, and maybe Palmer/Pletsch, would never have been if I had fallen asleep that night. Thank goodness I turned on the light, grabbed a tablet, and started writing. Three hours later, I had outlined the entire book and written Pants for ANY Body on the first page.
I got up at 5 every morning for months to use the executive secretary’s IBM Executive typewriter before she arrived at work. I then went back to it after 5 p.m. until I had to leave when the store was locked up. Then at home I would do art and paste-ups. We all laughed later when Susan Pletsch first noted that I had drawn a hand with the thumb on the wrong side. If you have the original 80-page book, it is on page 15. (Susan redid all art in the next version. She was better at it, and as long as she didn’t drink coffee, her lines were smooth.)
Finally the book was done, but when my students read it, they said it didn’t “sound” like me. What a revelation! You mean you can write like you talk? I went through the book again and made it more fun. Meier & Frank’s print shop printed the book for me. The pages were collated with the help of my family. Then I took boxes of books into the store to use its saddle stitch machine to staple them together. Of course, the middle pages stuck out when the book was folded. No problem, we just made the cover larger. Only 500 of those were printed. Fortunately, I was the notions buyer as well as sewing instructor, so I sold myself books to pay for the printing. Finally, I had books to go along with my classes.
I started traveling the country on weekends and during my vacations to teach pant fitting classes at other department stores. This was the beginning of the Palmer/Pletsch traveling seminar business.
the first pant book
ads for seminars around the country
When Susan and I got together and wrote Painless Sewing; Easy, Easier, Easiest Tailoring; and Sewing Ultrasuede Fabric, we decided to revise Pants for Any Body together. We did this three times, first expanding it from its original 80 pages to 128, then later updating and expanding it after years of teaching experience.
The original Vogue pant pattern envelope and guidesheet from 1976.
Palmer/Pletsch pant patterns since 1976
In 1976, we approached Vogue Pattern Co. about developing a pant fit pattern. They sent Karen Burkhart to San Diego to watch me teach a pant seminar to determine whether they should let us do a pattern for them. Until that point, only ready-to-wear clothing designers, never teachers, were licensees of a pattern company. When we were accepted, we wrote the fit portion of the guide sheet and then flew to New York to photograph a model being fitted. The pattern became a Vogue best-seller, selling 150,000 copies the first year. It was in their catalog until 1985, five years after we had moved on to McCall’s.
In 1980, we switched to McCall’s and were allowed to write not only the fit instructions but the sewing directions as well. They let us change to 1″ side seam allowances from the normal 5/8″ in fitted garments. By 1990, we were adding alteration lines on the tissue. We were pretty revolutionary and McCall’s liked the sales results. One of our first patterns, the 8-hour blazer, which was featured in Family Circle magazine, sold more than one million copies in one year—a record-breaker at that time.
During the past 30 years, Palmer/Pletsch has been continually redefining how to fit pants. Our first edition of Pants for ANY Body emphasized measuring as a way to achieve perfect fit. But we found that the only measurements that were accurate were length and width; crotch measurements were impossible.
We even tried unique tools, to no avail. One of the first was our handy-dandy crotch-o-meter—two tape measures tied together with a weight tied at the joint. Others refined the concept. See the one at the right and below.
\
A crotch-o-meter, with the addition of plastic to keep the tape in proper place in back and a plumb line with a vial attached. Not sure why.
Why didn’t these tools work? If you measured the women in the drawing below, how would you know WHERE to add or subtract to the crotch length?
We found a better way! We made ¼”-check gingham pant-fitting shells in all sizes for our students to try on. No more measuring. We let the pant tell us the size and let the checks give us the fit clues! Throughout the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, we fitted more than 100,000 women in gingham shells all over North America. Gingham took away the guesswork!
We learned a lot by seeing so many sizes, shapes, and ages. We even saw size trends in various parts of the country. The average size was smaller in San Diego than in Chicago, for example. Lots of high hips in Cleveland. Who knows why!
gingham reveals smiles
Pati and Marta teaching a workshop in 1993.
In 1986 Palmer/Pletsch began teaching four-day workshops in Portland. Pant Fitting and Sewing was one of our earliest. We had long since stopped taking crotch measurements because they just didn’t work. But we did have our first students make a gingham shell to perfect their pants pattern. Eventually, we started tissue-fitting, thanks to our friend Terri Burns. She said that we tissue-fitted everything else, so why not pants? She simply taped the crotch of the tissue to strengthen it.
By the mid-1990s we were letting our students try on the tissue pattern after we first checked out their fit in gingham. In 2002, we dropped the gingham entirely and went directly to the tissue. It was a big step, but we tested the process in a workshop and we got people in the right size every time. (Our new multisize pant fit patterns helped a lot!) Now all of our McCall’s pant patterns have alteration lines on the tissue to make tissue-fitting easy.
With Susan no longer in the business, I teamed with Marta Alto to revise and expand our pant book. Marta assisted in the pant workshops, but was the first to admit she was not a pant fit expert. However, she learned. Marta has perfected techniques such as the no-gap welt pocket. She is also a great judge of pattern markings and anything that makes the fit process easier. Marta enjoys sewing so much that she volunteered to help our models sew their pants during photography.
Marta teaching a workshop in 1994.
As you can tell, when we write books, we write from experience, not just research. If we write about it, we’ve done it. We finally can say that pant fitting is easier than it has ever been. When you tissue-fit, you need only your hip measurement to get the right size pattern. From there, what you see is what you get.
These five women all started with a size 18 pattern, yet look how different their shapes are. Some people want us to design one pattern that would fit everyone better. Which of these size 18’s would you pick? That is why we put alteration lines on our patterns instead.
Pati and Marta during their Meier & Frank days in 1974. They can’t believe they put plaid and tweed on their bodies.
Our pant fitting philosophy is different from most:
1. We use commercial patterns rather than teaching you to draft your own.
After all, patterns are one of the least expensive ingredients in sewing pants, and the most time-consuming if you were to draft your own AND you would still have to fit! All of the major pattern companies use a “sloper” or master pattern to develop their fashion patterns and all are similar in shape. They all start with the same standard set of body measurements. Once you find your alterations, some or all will be needed on any pant pattern depending on the design. Your high hip won’t disappear just because you sewed a Butterick instead of a McCall’s. Patterns are hand drafted, then computer graded to create multiple sizes, so there is always that human element and judgment involved. This is why we teach tissue-fitting before cutting out your fabric.
McCall’s tests every design in half plaid, half muslin.
2. We don’t promise you a perfect pattern
that you can cut, sew, and wear without ever trying it on. That’s impossible unless you never fluctuate one ounce in weight, never make a cutting error (an 1/8″ error times eight seam allowances around a pant can make each pair 1″ different in width), and always use exactly the same fabric (every fabric fits differently). You can, however, alter a pattern to be close to your size and shape and then use our fit-as-you-sew system to create perfect pants!
3. You can use ANY fabric with ANY pattern.
You don’t need a special pattern for knits and another for woven fabrics. Using our fit-as-you-sew system, you can get good fit with any fabric.
4. Great looking pants go beyond good fit!
It is also selecting the best style for your figure and the best fabric for that style, and sewing beautiful pant details. Pockets that gap, zippers that pucker, and pleats that pooch all detract from good fit. We think choosing the right pattern, fabric, and sewing techniques is what creates a perfect pant for YOU! We’ll even share some of our favorite tips for FAST pant sewing - how about “Great Pants in Three Hours!!”
We often tell our students to go home after a workshop and sew a dozen pairs of pants right away in different styles and fabrics to really get the fit down. Jackie Crawford from Wisconsin took us literally. She says, “What ‘twill be ‘twill be!”
Happy Fitting,
Pati Palmer
Jackie Crawford, from West Allis, Wisconsin, sewed a dozen pairs of pants during a three-week workshop marathon in Portland one summer.