Pattern Review: Burda (Plus) 6951 (Slim-fit pants)

I’ve been on a search for a good cigarette/slim-legged style pant pattern for several years. I never would have thought that this style would look good on me until I muslined the Colette Clover pants. While I ran into to a lot of the same fit issues that Tanya did with her Clovers, I loved the look of the slim (but not skinny) legs. Unfortunately, the crotch and butt area were a hot mess, and on top of that, I prefer a fly front closure in my pants.

Rather than trying to figure out how to re-draft the Clovers to fit my shape, I set out looking for a pant pattern that checked all of the boxes on my wishlist:

• Available in my size
• Slim-cut legs
• Fly front closure
• Functional front pockets (as opposed to the odd little pockets in the Clovers)

Three different patterns and a half dozen muslins later, I am pleased to say that I have found a pant pattern that meets these criteria and whose fit makes me fairly happy. That pattern is Burda 6951:

Burda 6951

Burda 6951 is an envelope pattern and is part of Burda’s plus sized pattern line. Burda envelope patterns (in North America) include seam allowances and full instructions with illustrations. If you’ve been curious about trying Burda because you’ve heard good things about their fit but have been put off by the tracing step of the magazine patterns, adding seam allowances, or prefer easy-to-understand instructions, Burda envelope patterns would be a good starting point for you.

One thing to note about this pattern is that it’s drafted for stretch bottom-weight fabrics and includes a couple of inches of negative ease at the hip. I will admit that I initially freaked out at the thought of negative ease at the hip/tummy and thought, “I won’t be able to sit down in these pants!” With this in mind, I sewed a (wearable) muslin in one size larger than what Burda’s size chart recommended for my hip, but this larger ended up feeling pretty loose to wear. Photos confirmed my suspicion. If you ignore some of the leg wrinkles, you can see that the smaller size clearly fits me better through the rear than the larger size did:

Burda 6951 size 54 (jeans) vs. siz52 (print pant)

I have a few minor fit tweaks that I clearly still need to make in the leg region, but I couldn’t be happier with the fit through the tummy and bum at this point. I feel like I now finally have a pant/jean pattern worthy of the various stretch bottom-weight fabrics that I’ve been accumulating in recent years!

Most of the time, I’ve been wearing these pants rolled up, boyfriend-jean style:

Burda 6951 rolled up – boyfriend style

Pattern name: Burda (Plus) 6951

Size range (with measurements): Burda Plus sizes 42-54. (Hip sizes 40 1/4″-52 3/4″ or 102cm-134cm)

This is a decent size range, but the hip measurement doesn’t go up all that high for a pattern that is actually a designated “Plus” size pattern.

What size did you make?:

My initial muslin was a size 54, which was a little too big for my tastes. I sewed a size 52, which corresponds to my 50″ hip, for my second pair and am much happier with the fit. This pattern runs true-to-size for the style; don’t be afraid of the negative ease!

What are your measurements, height, and body type?

I am 5’2″ with a 50″ hip and a 45″-ish waist (depending on time of day, etc). I consider my body type to be a busty rectangle.

What adjustments did you make and how long did they take?

I made the following adjustments. Outside of sewing a test pair of jeans, these were all quick adjustments to make:

• Shortened inseam by 3″
• Added 1″ wedge to the CB (at lengthen-shorten line), tapering to nothing at the side seam. This alteration adds vertical room over my rear.
• In the future, I will try to address some of the leg wrinkles. I am currently trying to figure out if I need a full thigh/knock knee alteration, possible flat seat alteration, and/or a full calf adjustment.

What was the construction process like? Did the instructions make sense to you?

I’ve made pants before, so I was familiar with the construction process. Burda’s envelope patterns have much better instructions than their download or magazine patterns, but the patterns do assume that you have some sewing knowledge. I did skip the fly zipper installation instructions and instead used my usual method that I learned from HotPatterns:

HotPatterns fly zipper tutorial video

Note that while the envelope photo shows a woman wearing jeans, the instructions do not include any jean-specific details. You’ll need to use a separate sewalong from another jeans pattern or your RTW jeans if you want to mimic jeans details when sewing this pattern.

How do you like the pattern’s fit? Do you think the design works well for your particular body shape?

I love the fit! I’ve been searching for a slim-fitting, but not too skinny pant for several years. I think that this shape could pretty much be worn by just about any body type. I suspect that this pant (being part of Burda’s plus line) is drafted with a little extra room in the tummy and waist–those are areas where I often need to add a little bit of extra room, but did not need to with this pattern.

Will you make the pattern again? If so, what fit or design changes will you make?

Yes, I will definitely make this pattern again–probably many more times. If I can figure out the fit changes that I need to make to decrease the leg wrinkles in back, I’ll make those changes. (I do realize that you need some wrinkles back there to be able to sit comfortably.)

Do you have any advice on this pattern for other curvy sewers? Are there any resources (blog posts, fitting books, tutorials) that helped you sew this piece up?

My advice would be to choose your starting size based off of the size chart, and if you’re small-waisted, measure the waist and determine if you need to go down a size there. No one else in the SBC or on Pattern Review appears to have sewn these up yet, so I didn’t have anyone else’s advice or blog posts to work from for this pattern. As I previously mentioned, I always use the method shown in HotPatterns fly zipper tutorial video to install a fly front zipper.

Size Range (1-5): 4 (Could be larger for plus sizes.)
Instructions (1-5): 3 (Should include options of jeans details, given that the envelope shows jeans)
Construction Process (1-5): 5 (Construction went very smoothly–all notches, seams, etc, lined up)
Final Fit (1-5): 5 (When sewn in the appropriate size, I love the final fit on these)
Overall Rating (1-5): 4.25 (Average of all scores)