I found a great piece of fabric last time I was at the discount fabric store. A really dark denim, heavy weight but with lots of stretch....and at $1.99/yard how could I go wrong.....Well I almost did. After cutting my fabric out I realised that I hadn't actually washed the fabric first, now I've been caught out before with things shrinking during the first wash, so rather than risk it I went ahead and washed all my cut out pieces, which resulted is some frayed edges, but at least I was sure that they would fit in the end.
I used the pattern that I created for my last pair of Jeans as a starting point. For this new version I cut them out with an extra 1/2 inch at each side seam. I lowered the front rise about an inch and the back rise about 1/2 inch.
I started sewing with the two back pockets. I wanted some pretty top stitching like you find on store bought jeans so I set my normal machine up with purple thread and my "new" old machine (that I was given by one of the ladies at my Thursday knitting group) with silver metallic thread and stitched my design with a combination of the two threads.
I then sewed a backing of random cotton onto the back of the pockets to finish off the inside, before sewing them onto the back of the Jeans.
I did a full fly install into the front of the jeans which actually tuned out very nicely - except that after a couple of washes some of the top stitching is starting to come out.
I added pockets in the front, again top stitched with a combination of the purple and metallic silver thread.
and lined with a piece of scrap cotton from my stash.
I basted together the side and inner seams and that's when I got stuck. The pants were so close, but there were definite wrinkles under the butt that no matter what I tried I could not get rid of.
The pants got put to the side a couple of times whilst I tried to figure out how to get them to work....but in the end I decided close enough is good enough and just went ahead. I ended up letting out the inseam at the back of the crotch and taking it in at the front and that helped somewhat, as did a bit of trimming around the knees.... but some of those butt wrinkles still remain.
I need to add quite a bit of length the the bottom of the crotch curve next time...
I added a yolk to the back as it was riding down a bit as I walked upstairs, and then the waistband. And for the final fitting I added 1.5" wide elastic to the waistband....yep I like my jeans to come with elasticated waists.....My problem is that my waist is the same size as my hips so my pants are always either falling off, or really digging in around the waist - hence elastic is my friend.
The hems I just ended up turning up the minimum, I think next time I need to add some length to my pattern, these work fine with my soft soled shoes but anything with an actual sole they could be a bit short....good thing I don't do heels!
Overall they're not bad, but they're not fantastic either. I think I see a pants sloper in my near future,
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