Ames Jeans

After making a couple of pairs of jeans for our last photoshoot I was inspired to try and make a pair of jeans for myself that are actual jeans - all the bells and whistles - I wanted to use the rivet press whilst I still had access to it and make a pair of jeans that looks store bought....and I think I almost managed it.....

I say almost as I decided at the last minute that I couldn't leave the back pockets blank - that's just not me, so I sat down an sketched out a number of different designs, mainly based around different animals. In the end I decided to go for the stylised elephant.

I'm so happy with how he turned out, it took a lot of very slow sewing to get those curves smooth - in places it was one stitch at a time - sew one stitch, then pick up the presser foot and adjust the fabric, sew another stitch ...and repeat.

The pattern - I decided to try out the Ames Jeans from Cashmerette since I'd just sewn them twice.  Based on my measurements I sit between a size 12 and 14 through the hips and legs but then I'm a size 20 or so at the waist.  So that I what I started with.  I cut a size 14 from the ankles up to the hips, then graded out to a 20  using the apple pelvis, keeping the extra height from the size 20 as well.  

I had the original muslin I'd used for one of the photoshoot pairs of jeans - they were a size 20-22 so it was actually quite easy to unpick them and recut my pattern out of the existing pieces.

Then came the fun part of trying to get them to fit - because they certainly did not fit straight out of the packet.  The first thing was there was a lot of extra length at the sides.  At the center front and center back the height was pretty good but I had to take about 1.5" length out of the side seams between waist and hips.

The next issues was the back under the bum.  They fit fine through the hips but there was a lot of extra fabric at the back of my thighs.  I pinned out a fish eye dart from the middle of my butt down the back of my thigh to my hips.  I took out about 3"in total.

I needed a knock knee adjustment to get the bottom of my legs to sit straight, then finally I flared the bottom of the legs from the knee down, cutting it up the middle and adding about 4" extra width at the bottom on both back and front.  

I made all these adjustments to my pattern pieces, then recut my muslin yet again and this time I was quite happy with the fit.  A few minor tweaks taking out of bit of width here and a bit there and I was good to go.

It turns out that I could have take a bit more fabric out of the front pelvis, but other than that I'm really happy with the way these are fitting.  

So now I could go ahead and make them up.  I used a standard copper topstitching thread on these, made the pocket bags out of some left over plaid cotton.

Even added in the belt loops - which I'm very happy about since I actually find that I need to wear a belt with them.  I think I underestimated the amount of stretch in my fabric since, even with my standard elastic waist they still slip off my hips.

The only change I made to the construction of these pants is to add some elastic into the waistband.  As my waist and hips are basically the same dimensions I find that even with a beautifully contoured and fitted waistband my pants still slide off my hips.  so by added some negative ease into the waistband with a piece of elastic I can usually keep them up.  It makes them look not so nice when they are not on the body, but once they are on you can't tell.  Can you tell there is elastic in that waistband?

Overall I really love these pants and am so glad I made them.  One or two more tweaks to the pattern and I think these will be staple in my wardrobe.