Try these beloved PJ-style patterns:

* The legendary Burda one-seam for women #3216 They get the crotch curve right. craftzine.com/go/burda

* KwikSew men’s scrubs #2861 Make a combo drawstring/elastic instead of all elastic, and achieve ecstasy! craftzine.com/go/scrubs

* The looks-sexy-on-every-gal, stretch-fabric yoga pant, KwikSew #3115 This is a wide, flat elastic waistband, which looks fine in stretch fabrics. craftzine.com/go/yogapant

* The impeccably groovy Folkwear sarouelles #119 These are the exception to the no-unisex rule. They look wonderful on men and women. Great crotch gusset. folkwear.com/119.html

3. For advanced-intermediate sewers only:
Betzina’s jeans.

Get Sandra Betzina’s Vogue #7608 women’s jeans pattern, plus her book, Fast Fit ( sandrabetzina.com). This is a project for folks with two sewing machines they can set up simultaneously, plus a serger.

I’m serious.

Tailored trouser-making is the culmination of an impressive sewing résumé. Making the typical prom gown is far easier than making a pair of jeans, so think of your perfect pantaloons as something you work up to, like a degree.

Illustration by Melinda Beck

What is “advanced-intermediate”? It means you’ve made successful skirts, tops, and dresses, put in zippers, interfacing, facings, good-looking hems, pockets, set-in sleeves, and buttons — plus you can thread a machine with a double needle. You have a serger and aren’t afraid to use it.

Once you’re in the zone, Sandra’s your guru. She’ll ask, “When you sit down, do your jeans gap in the back?” — and then tell you how to fix it, once and for all. She understands whether you’re

If you can make
nonjudgmental
measurements, you’ll
get a pair of pants
that make you look
like a movie star.

agonizing about your calf or your bellybutton, and then offers a brilliant solution. Her pant-making videos are inspiring.

These jeans, made with the skills and measurements Sandra advises, create a back view that inspires lyric. The critical step — and there is no way around this if you want satisfaction — is to make what’s called a muslin, a pre-test of the crucial fitting area, in an inexpensive fabric.

You quickly cut out the pattern from the waist to the knees. You don’t put in the fly, you don’t do pockets, you’re just getting the booty silhouette. Try your muslin on, and mark everything that has to move a pinch here, and a handful there. Transfer those corrections to the paper pattern, and you’ll proceed to wear this thing out.

I was the biggest whiner you ever met about making a muslin. I wouldn’t surrender my first four years of sewing, I was so outraged at the prospect. But I finally caved, and now I’ve made so many cute jeans it’s dizzying: red corduroy, art deco floral, pinstripes, and my favorites, the black denim lycra that say “BITCH” in white graffiti all over. I get mobbed at the post office in that outfit — truly, a stunner in jeans! ×