[Deanna]

Hello! I need assistance from those with more experience. Normally when making a pant pattern, I will go with the size that pertains to my child’s hips/waist measurements and then add a bunch of length as per instructions given on this blog. However, for my son, this means a pattern size of 2 or 3 and then adding enough length for his 6 year-old frame. (Which is a lot as he is tall.) This works out quite well for the most part, but I am worried that I need to be giving him more room in the rise. Yes? No? What is the best way to determine that and then how would I alter the pattern piece?

[Masha Richart]

I have had to do this a lot. It sounds like my daughter is built similarly to your son – if I was going by the size chart she would wear a 2 with the length of a 7! I was given a bit of advice by Liesl a couple years ago, though, to only size down the width a couple sizes from the length, to preserve proportions. I find that this works for us.

That said, I did tend to lengthen the rise when I sewed her woven pants (as opposed to knit leggings, which are the only kind of pants I sew for her these days). I have done this with the Sailboat and the After-School patterns. I start by tracing the rise of the larger size, and then switching to the smaller pattern piece and tracing the rest of the waist and hip area using that pattern piece. It works fine. Hope that helps.

[Reeni]

IMHO, the best way to figure this out is to measure. My kids will not wear a pair of pants if it is uncomfortable in the groin; ds has actually worn pants on his hips rather than have them bunch up in between the legs. Too much skin in the back!
Take the front and back measurements of a pair of pants that he likes and compare them to the ones of the pattern pieces; sometimes adjusting the curve (shallower or more curved) is also needed. I have also folded the pants with one leg inside the other to compare it to the pattern — this works well with pants that don’t have a zip fly.