Every person has a unique body with hundreds of different measurements and proportions, so every garment and sewing pattern will fit every body differently. The great about sewing your own clothing is that you can adapt your sewing patterns to fit your unique body.

Today I’m sharing a few tips and basic instructions for making an extended calf adjustment (aka a full or large calf adjustment) to a pants sewing pattern. When I made a pair of tapered leg trousers recently, I was surprised that I could not find a very detailed tutorial on this pattern adjustment. There are a few blog posts with the basics but they left me with questions. Today I’m going to answer some of those questions and show you step by step illustrations for how to make this adjustment. (I’m by no way an expert on this adjustment or on pattern making and pants. So consider this a compilation of all the information I found in my research.)