If you often wish for another inch or two in a waistband, your day has come. A wide waist can be a product of many things: genes, a baby on the way (or you’ve just delivered one), a medical condition, or ice cream. Regardless of the cause, a wide waist affects how your clothes fit; pants are often tight in the waist but too loose at the seat and hips. Jackets won’t button across the front, but the shoulders and neckline need another person to help fill them out. If you encounter these problems in commercial patterns, there are simple ways to fix them.

When your tummy is proportionally fuller than the rest of your figure, getting the right silhouette requires a two-part fix: first for comfort and then for style. The waistline influences almost everything you wear: blouses, jackets, pants, and skirts. But you can change darts, inject extra fabric by cutting and pivoting patterns, make design changes such as inserting panels, use stretchy fabrics, or fool the eye with accessories to create a look that flatters your figure.

Kathleen Cheetam demonstrates how to adjust patterns for both fit and style to create clothes that look and feel fantastic. And with a few design tricks, all of your clothes can be comfortable and flattering.

From Threads #142