Hey Everyone, I’m so excited to write my first blog post in my new blog! Today I want to show you how to draft pants from a jeans pattern. This is a Q&A from one of my students in my Craftsy Class – Perfect Jeans for Every Body. The big thing is to put the back yoke back on the top of the back leg. Because I’m a pattern drafting geek, I think it’s interesting that the seam between the back yoke and the top of the back leg is a style line. Kinda like a princess seam for your butt 🙂 When you put the yoke back on the leg, the style line is traded in for waist darts. 
The back yoke is created from the top of the back leg. Basically, the bottom edge of the back yoke is defined by drawing a line from the CB edge to the side seam edge. The width of the yoke is determine by the position of this line. After slashing the pattern along the line the darts are closed. This is what creates the curved shape of the back dart. The amount of curve the back yoke has is dependent on the size of the back waist darts. The larger the back waist darts, the more curve the back yoke will have. I used my fitted Ponte Knit Jeans Pattern in this video tutorial. The back waist darts I ended up with were very small because my waist and hip measurements are very similar.
I recommend working with your tried and true jeans pattern. That way the curve in the back yoke pattern piece will create appropriate sized waist darts for your shape. The more defined your waistline is, the more curve your yoke will have. More curve will make larger waist darts.
In addition to putting the back yoke back on the top of the back legs, there are a few other things to check. Some jeans pattern have a longer front inseam between crotch and knee. This helps to smooth the back leg when you are making snug jeans. For pants, the front and back inseams should be an equal length.
The other thing to think about is the position of the crotch curve. If you jeans fit snug to your shape, you may want to lengthen the rise. Pants usually have a little space between your and the crotch seam.
Check out today’s video tutorial for all the details. Please let me know if you have questions.
