Jeans wrap-up

Finally, here are some pictures of the completed jeans

 

 Taken in the office parking lot

After wearing them for a day, here is my wrap up.  These are really comfortable.  I love the color and I think the light blue topstitching looks really good.  The denim relaxed more than I expected it to throughout the day, so really I could have taken these in a half inch on each side through the hips and thighs, but the calves could have stood being a touch wider.  I tend to wear knee high socks because I get cold and the jeans are getting stuck to the socks and riding up a bit.  Not a huge deal, but a bit annoying to have to pull the hem down every once in a while.  The side seams are farther back that I would like and have a tendency to rotate towards the back.  I think the rotation is a function of the way I walk.  If it were a grain problem I think they would both be rotating either clockwise or counter clockwise, unless I made the pattern pieces off grain, which I’m pretty sure I didn’t. The waist band is a bit bulky, I should have trimmed my seam allowances closer, and I should have put the button hole for the fly closer to the edge of the waist band.  I set it back a bit too much because I was worried my machine wouldn’t be able to handle the extra bulk at the edge.  None of these things really detracts from these being cute and casual jeans.

The only big criticisms I have are:

1) I didn’t making the pocket facing wide enough, so it has a tendency to flip out of the pocket.  This is really annoying and just looks really bad in my opinion.  I think if I buy some rivets and put a rivet at the top of the pocket, this problem will be partially mitigated by the extra support, but next time I need to cut the facing wider.

2) I didn’t cut the pocket bags wide enough. It looks less that awesome on the inside, and I think if they were actually wide enough it would help stop the facings from poking out.

3) I forgot to fully removing some of my basting that had been cut out, so I have some little threads sticking out along the side seams.  I don’t know if anyone else will notice, but I do.

This was a fun project.  I learned a lot and came out with a pretty nifty garment.  I don’t think I am going to fade these, since as they are I feel pretty comfortable wearing these to work.