How to: Lengthen / Shorten the Pant Leg on Lisbeth Pants

A sewing pattern will rarely fit you right out of the envelope (email? zipped folder? PDF?), and quite often, you will need to do minor, or not so minor, adjustments to achieve the fit you are looking for. Changing the pant leg length on the Lisbeth and other pants is one of those adjustments that you may find yourself doing more often than not.

First off, how much do you need to add or remove from the pant leg? You may know this from the sewing experience or just by knowing your body. And if you are unsure of where to start, a good rule of thumb is to change the pant’s length by the difference between your height and the height the pattern was drafted for, divided by two.

Why not add/remove the entire height difference? The height difference is distributed over your body, and very rarely, it would apply to just your lower or upper half (this is where knowing your body comes in handy). For that reason, we divide the height difference by two. This way, half would apply to your upper body and a half to your lower body.

Now that you know how much to lengthen the pant leg by, we need to divide it further by two. This is because the Lisbeth pants have two lengthen/shorten lines, one above and one below the knee.

SHORTENING EXAMPLE
You height – 5’4” (163 cm)
Lisbeth pants pattern is drafted for 5’8” (172 cm)
Total height difference: 5’8” (172 cm) – 5’4” (163 cm) = 4” (10 cm)
Remove from lower body: 4” (10 cm) / 2 = 2” (5 cm)
Remove from each lengthen/shorten line: 2” (5 cm) / 2 = 1” (2.5 cm)

LENGTHENING EXAMPLE
You height – 5’10” (178 cm)
Lisbeth pants pattern is drafted for 5’8” (172 cm)
Total height difference: 5’10” (178 cm) – 5’8” (172 cm) = 2” (5 cm)
Remove from lower body: 2” (5 cm) / 2 = 1” (2.5 cm)
Remove from each lengthen/shorten line: 1” (2.5 cm) / 2 = 0.5” (1.3 cm)

Next, let’s adjust the pattern pieces! You will need the front and back leg pattern pieces, pen or pencil, a ruler, tape and extra paper.

Tip: I try to use the scraps of paper leftover from cutting the pattern pieces out as much as I can.

1. Working with one leg at a time, cut it along one of the “cut here to lengthen/shorten” lines.

2. To shorten, draw a line the required distance away from the cut edge on one of the pattern pieces.

2. To lengthen, tape one cut pattern piece to a piece of scrap paper. Draw a line the required distance away from the cut edge on the paper piece. Draw in the grainline. You will use it to line up the other part of the pattern.

4. Line up the other pattern piece to the line you just drew, using the pattern grainline to line everything up. Tape the pattern piece down. And draw in new side seams.