Jeans, Jeans, and more Jeans

So lately I have been working on Jeans. When the cold weather approaches, it motivates me to do pants. As you recall, I had the desire to make a pair of jeans from printed denim after seeing this picture in Instyle Magazine 7/2012:

Photo Courtesy of Instyle Magazine, July 2012

Well try as I might, I wasn't able to find denim in such bold prints, so instead I went with these prints:

All of these were purchased from JoAnn's. Well when I got ready to sew that's when I discovered I had misplaced my jean pattern. After all of those months of getting the fit of the Jalie 2908 jeans pattern just right, now I can't find the thing!

Well thank goodness for Craftsy.com, and Kenneth Kings class "Jean-ius". It took me about 2 days; but I made another Jean pattern from one of the earlier pairs I had made. I only had to do very minor tweaking, and I was ready to go. He has so-o-o many helpful hints, and his directions are very easy to follow. This was definitely worth the money! And if you are like me you can catch one of the class sales and get a discount.

I decided to do some topstitching using a the triple stitch on my machine on 2 of the pairs, and using buttonhole thread and my Singer 99K on the other 2 pairs.

After discovering the convenience of having a separate machine already setup with the topstitching thread, I will never again sew jeans on a single machine. It's so convenient to just turn to the other machine rather than having to rethread the machine constantly, as I alternate between seams and topstitching.


  The first pair was made from "paint-splash" denim.  It had a little bit of lycra in it.  I always make my jeans with some extra comfort space.  I'm originally from the south, so anything close to freezing, and a sister will put on thermals in a heartbeat! I love to wear heals with my jeans; so I typically make my pants one to two inches longer than needed















Then came the Acid Wash jeans. I got was so pleased with the waistband. (A little thing that Kenneth King mentions is to cut the waist band on the crosswise grain, and this will give it some stretch). I As you can tell I got the fit over the rear without the use of darts! These were topstitched using white thread, and the triple stitch on my machine.



 


















Next were the black pin stripe jeans; on these I added 2 inches to the hemline, and decided to drop the waist about an inch. I've topped stitch these using a black buttonhole thread, so the topstitching is as noticeable on these as they are on the white ones and the final ones. Also, on these I decided to do the top stitching on the inseam; just to try something different.











The final pair was made from what I call"holey" denim. I chose to use a tan topstitching thread for these. I also went all out and did the rivets on the pockets, etc. I topstitched these on the inseam (hence, the reason for the awkward stand, so you could see the stitching). I kept all of the stitching on pockets very simple.  I figured the fabric was the eye-catcher.

I also decided to use my Singer 99k to do my buttonhole on the waistband.  It was so easy.   Sometimes these older attachments are great.  It handled the bulkiness at the waistband without problem:

I used my largest keyhole template and stitched around the buttonhole twice, but of course I had to do my sample stitch out first.

 The final touch was to use the buttonhole cutter to cut open the buttonhole, and a little fray check to seal the opening.

This is one of the many projects I've got finished during my blog absence.  So now I have 4 jeans completed and 3 more to go.  Hey, I need to have at least a weeks worth of jeans, you never know when a good old fashioned snow storm may hit.
  

New Years, and "I don't like making Pants/Jeans"

OK, is it just me, or do I take this as a sign that I'm not supposed to make pants!

I just tried making Jalie's 968 jeans. Got the muslin all fitted, and even made a pair out of
some heavy twill I had gotten from Joann's just to check the fit. All looked well, so I went ahead and made them from actual Denim. Can you believe, the pants were too big! The actual pants were probably 2 sizes bigger than the fittings I did from Muslin and denim. I rechecked my muslin and my pattern. The fit was fine on the mulim, and the pattern matched the muslin. Not so sure why the final pair is bigger than the fittings.

Maybe its the fabric. My final pair is a denim. Could the difference in fabrics be the culprit? I guess I'll wait a while and retry the pants. In the meantime, I'm hoping a couple of washings will help with the situation. Anything is worth a try.

Oh how I wish could buy them off the rack sometimes.

By the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!

Here are my jean "muslins". Sorry for the fuzzy pix, I tried to take them myself in a mirror. (I
think its time to invest in a tripod!).

Here is a side view: The rolled him is where I'm going to have them stop for capri's. Since My muslin turned out better than I expected, I figured I'd just keep them. I've already transferred the adjustments to my paper pattern. The other leg, is the length of the pants leg (cut), this should actually be the length with a hem. So I've got to add about 1-2 inches to my finished pattern.
Here is a front view:

I thought I'd practice my topstitching skills on them, and it turned out pretty well, with patience :)

This is a picture of the front:

Here is the back view. I didn't want to go too fancy on the pockets. so they are simple.

I got my waistband in on yesterday. I got the fit down pretty good through the hips and upper leg. However, I've still got to reduce this some more in the waist (In my pictures at the top I put on a belt with them; but I probably still need to take another inch or so out of the waist).