I made these over a year ago in very stretchy lightweight black corduroy (here). The fit was good but I didn't love the tummy stay thing. I managed to sneakily wear these as uniform pants at work once our month of covid lockdown ended...until the butt split open along the side of the pockets - which is the risk when you use a too light fabric for something like jeans with all their topstitching. I had apparently made size 2 but my pattern pieces say 4. So I made a size 4 this time and I suspect I made a size 4 the first time too.
When I made the corduroy version of these I knew I wanted more and I planned 2 more pairs right away. Unfortunately I didn't MAKE those two right away and I realised I was delaying due to the general feeling that Jeans are Hard.
Pair 1, in retrospect, should have been jeggings as this is another super lightweight stretch denim, and I think they won't last too long. But that's ok because I think 1990's throwback jeans probably need to live hard and burn out fast...
I made these in about 4 hours. I was in shock, in fact, that they were so easy. Nothing went wrong. I used the pocket from the Dawn jeans, it just needed some modification along the pocket opening, otherwise it was a perfect match. I didn't interface the waistbands. Of course I had some advantages that made these easier - the lightweight fabric didn't even need a denim needle and I was topstitching with my same thread. I used my Bernina for the buttonhole and the tops of the belt loops. I played around with my new embossing kit and some leather scraps. These jeans are great! They are very snug! Hm except for the waistband which I really did say was too loose before. I had a hard copy of the high waisted Ginger pattern and gave it to a friend, but I feel like I'm hitching these up a lot.
On to the jean fabric. Tried to stretch the waistband a lot to improve fit. Also shortened at the hems by 1.5". It didn't really help with the waist, I think I need to actually either take it in, or make the high waisted version of these. Also while doing the pockets I realised my replacement pocket piece was not actually a perfect fit and I had to make a few adjustments, but they were not dramatic ones. I'm...happy with these. They are really pretty! They also were easy to make with no dramas. I used Mara 70 topstitching thread in grey, and a kind of sea theme with my wave pockets and seamonster pocket bags. I sneakily stuck on a label harvested from some old jeans that I upcycled. I used a jeans needle, and topstitched with a second machine, so everything went smoothly. I do, however, feel like these are a kind of ok RTW fit. Like, they are nothing impressive and I expect they will fall off my butt as I wear them because they are a bit loose. Which all makes sense, since I did nothing to really make them fit better.
Summarising: I think in retrospect these are easy because I have made 3 pairs of Dawn jeans, and two of them in the past year. The Dawn instructions are amazing. The instructions for Gingers are ok. They are not amazing. I again referred to the fly instructions in the sewalong because the written fly instructions are confusing. But after making so many Dawns and the amazing hand holding that went along with it, nothing surprises me...it ends up that now I KNOW how to make jeans. And because the Dawns were non stretch, I put in more effort to get the right fit. I think if I wanted to make tight but nice fitting jeans now, I'd use my modified Dawn pattern rather than the Ginger pattern. The Dawn jeans I have made are really snug and I think I'd wear them more if they had a bit of stretch.
I'm really pleased that making jeans has entered my skill set, I'm planning a pair of Morgans before the weather warms up too much and I'm excited rather than being daunted, which is great.
No comments:
Post a Comment