collage

collage

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Jeans, Jeans, JEANS!!!

So the revamping of my first Ginger Jeans led to a jeans production line here. I had another cut of inexpensive Italian stretch denim that I purchased from Michael Levine at the same time as the denim from my first pair so I made some quick alterations to my pattern based on advice from the post I mentioned last time about fitting issues.

I sewed them up in two sessions over the course of about a week or so and they turned out pretty great.


They are snug. Perhaps a bit too snug in areas but I wore them for a whole day yesterday and was ok with them. The waistband is denim and the facing is quilting cotton and I got lazy and didn't interface the cotton. I should have because the worst thing about these jeans is the waistband being flimsy and too stretchy. Live and learn I guess. I always wear a belt anyhow so it's not the end of the world. 



The second worst part is that at the center seam on the butt my stitches were showing through. I think I accidentally used my topstitching thread in this seam and the stitch length was too long and the tension not tight enough. I was able to easily remove this line of stitches last night and the seam doesn't seem to be at risk of completely opening up, but I'll be careful. 

What I learned from this pair is that I am allowed to be creative with my seam allowances. I should have used the full 5/8" at the waist and lower legs but should have lowered it to 3/8" at the hip and upper thigh. Had I done that they'd be perfect I think. 

These were much faster to sew up because I decided to just finish all the seams with my new serger. They still look super clean inside without using the flat felled seams and from the outside you can't tell at all. On closer inspection my Gap Outlet jeans are all finished with serger seams too, so I feel justified. 

I finished these jeans about 3 days ago and immediately got the bug to do it again. I had purchased the Morgan Jeans pattern and some 100% cotton bull denim earlier this month. I was going to try out the Morgan jeans with this white denim but when I compared my ginger hacked pattern pieces to the morgan jeans pieces I knew it would take a lot of adjustments to make them work. So I made a couple more adjustments to my Ginger Pattern and forged ahead with the white denim. 

Following Closet Case Files 14 common Jeans adjustments post I shortened the crotch by another 1/4" and then when sewing I did a Round Pubis (what an awful name) adjustment. Then on my own I curved the waistband and yoke just a bit more than I had previously. When sewing I sewed 5/8" at the waist, 3/8" at the hip and upper thigh and then 5/8" (maybe a scant bit more) through from the knee on down. It made a HUGE difference in how they fit. Even though this denim has ZERO stretch they are comfortable and don't gap at the waist. Part of that is that I also made the back rise a bit taller than the front rise. It looked really weird having almost an inch of extra back fabric at the top of the side seams but once I graded it down to meet the front and sewed on the waistband you'd never guess. As a result the yoke pieces are super narrow at the side seams but no one but me would notice that. 

Anyhow, here they are in all their glory. I'm still not certain white jeans are my thing but I am so happy with the fit I think I'll have to wear them to just give them a try. 


Oh and you'd never notice from these pics, but I totally had to frankenhack the front pockets after everything was all said and done. The front pocket bags were so obvious I knew it would drive me bananas and I'd never wear them. So I cut them out following the curve of the pocket facing as best I could and then sewed them shut. Doesn't look awesome on the inside, but who cares. 

Here's what the fronts looked like before I did that. I think you'll agree it was the right choice. 


Jeans mastery unlocked!! Even though none of the pairs I've made are "perfect" they are all at least as good as the crappy store bought jeans I've been wearing up until now. 





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