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. 

The jeans are done!

I have been spending pretty much all of my spare time on these jeans, and I haven’t taken any construction pictures.  I meant o, I really did, but never quite got around to it, since it mean having to stop what I was doing.  I did most of the construction on Saturday.  My best friend wanted to have a sewing day, so I started at home and then packed up the project and my sewing machine and headed to her house.  It was lots of fun.  We listened to the Star Wars Trilogy in the background, ate cookies, made jokes, and even got a fair amount of sewing done.  By the time I left I had the front and back constructed, most of the fitting done, and everything basted together.  By the time I left I was so tired of fitting.  It is necessary, but I find it so boring.  It is like trying on clothes while shopping, I can only take so much, and then I am done.  I ended up having to take in the side seams a lot more than I expected, especially considering the comparative lack of stretch in the denim I was using.  At this point the fit seems to be pretty close to perfect, but I want to wear them for a bit to see if any issues develop. 

I sewed on the tiny watch/ticket pocket before I did my fitting, and almost ended up losing the pocket.  The side seam is actually a bit farther back that I would like, because I didn't want to lose the cute little pocket.

The pockets ended up turning out really well.  They aren't perfect, but they look really good.

I am going to wear them on Friday and will post action shots then, assuming I get around to actually taking pictures. 

So close and yet so far

I got a lot done today. The jeans are fitted, the fly is in. I just need to add the waistband, sew on the back pockets, add the button, and hem. I think the gear embroidery turned out great. I can't wait to see everything together, but I don't know if I will get much sewing done tomorrow.  Maybe Monday.

The pieces are cut

I just finished cutting out the pieces for my jeans.  Most of them, at least.  I want to have a contour waistband, so I want to wait until I decide exactly where these jeans will sit before cutting it.  Also, I haven't cut the back pockets because I am lazy.

In related news, I sat on my foot too long while cutting the pieces and I have a horrendous cramp in my foot.  Ow.

More denim ruminations

Please excuse the bad photos. They were taken with my phone in my cube at work...

I haven’t done anything sewing related in a couple of days. I received the denim for my jeans yesterday. It isn’t quite as stretchy as I expected, but I love the color. The buttons I ordered are even cooler in person than they were on the website, but I have no idea what I will use them for. If only they were less expensive! The blue pinstripe will hopefully end up being a pair of slacks and maybe a skirt.

Today, while I am at work, B is being awesome and prewashing and drying it for me. Tonight I am going to cut out the pieces with a very generous seam allowance, so I can hopefully start construction tomorrow morning. I have been reading and rereading this zipper fly tutorial at Stitches and Seams, trying to figure it out. I think I get it, but I will find out when I actually attempt it.

I want to embroider the back pockets, because that is a detail that I love in RTW. At this point I am leaning towards a minimalist, lines-only, embroidery of a couple of gears. In my head I see it as about 1/4 of a large gear with a smaller gear. I am very much in a steampunk phase right now, which I worry may be pushing me in a bad direction. I really like the idea but I can't seem to put it on paper yet.

All week I have been examining people's jeans. What do I think about the pocket placement on her's? The topstitching on his? It helped me to realize something. I actually like the fading details that they put on commercial jeans now. I’m not especially fond of crotch whiskers, but I do like a bit of fading on the front of the thighs. I’m not entirely sure how to get this look, though. Spray on some bleach? Sponge on the bleach? Hand held sander? I think all three would work, but which is more reliable? It would be annoying to go to all the work, make a great looking pair of jeans, and then make them look as though they had contract some catastrophic denim disease in trying to fade them. What do you think? What would you do?

New adventures in sewing

Sadly, the cats wouldn't stand still long enough for a clear photo.

I tend to me a by the seat of my pants seamster*. I’m unlikely to sew from a pattern that I didn’t make myself, and on the rare occasions I do, I always make changes. I don’t mean changes for fit, more like “you know what this top needs? More buttons, less collar, different sleeves.” Even patterns I draft rarely make it to mock up or garment without changes. Somehow the shapes look different on fabric than they did on paper. I am slowly getting better at visualizing how a pattern will look in fabric, but I am not there yet.

All this is to preface saying that I am very nervous about this jeans idea. I’m excited about it, although my only foray into fitted pants, as opposed to bloomers for faire, did not go well at all. I just couldn’t figure out how to fit so many curves at once. Of course, that was at least 5 years ago, and I have learned a lot since then.

I’m not going to use a commercial pattern. I have one to look at and so I can follow some of the construction instructions, but I plan on basing the pattern on a pair of jeans that I own that fit really well except for being way to short. Honestly, length is the primary reason I am moving into the arena of pants making. I am 5’7”, which certainly isn’t short, but it also isn’t especially tall, so you wouldn’t think finding pants long enough would be an issue. Unfortunately, all of my height is in my legs. Since reaching my current height, I have owned a grand total of 5 pairs of pants that were actually long enough. Most of the time, even letting down the hem doesn’t give me enough length and it is really frustrating. The luxury of having pants that don’t show off my ankles is definitely worth a bit of work.

Up until this point 98% of my sewing has been costumes, corsets, and home décor. Most of the people I know who sew do mostly costumes and some special occasion wear, so working on actual everyday clothing is oddly intimidating to me. What do you sew? Why did you start sewing? Was there something that you once thought you would never make, but have now conquered?

The stretch denim is supposed to arrive on Thursday…

*note: In real life I say “sew-er”, but since that looks like a much less pleasant work in writing, I like seamster best on paper. Sewist just doesn’t work for me. Not sure why, just doesn’t.