Sometime in January, my mom asked me what my sewing goals for the new year were. I came up with 12 specific things I want to sew this year. I tried to challenge myself, make sure I included a few wardrobe staples, and also follow my inspiration. And I’m so thrilled to announce that I have successfully marked one off!
The quintessential jeans.
I’ve never really felt the need to sew my own jeans before, so worried about getting the fit right, making sure they were comfortable, stitching through all of that thick denim, etc. But my sewing bestie Beth has been talking about it a lot and got me inspired to try it. The thing is, she sews differently than I do, meaning she prefers indie patterns and likes using online tutorials and social media support. I am more of a private sewer I suppose, and only show off my makes after they are done. Since I had my birthday overnighter with my mom this last weekend, I asked her what I should bring to work on and she said, “Jeans.” So I did.
I used this fun floral denim from my Grandma’s Stash for this first go. It has no stretch at all, but I figured I’d rather try jeans with free fabric than worry the whole time about ruining good denim that I’d bought. I chose Vogue 8774, which I grabbed during a Joann’s sale, and used coupons on my jeans zipper and button. So these are basically $10 jeans!
The other thing that ended up being a blessing in disguise was that I packed all of my sewing supplies and two machines to drive up to Castle Pines, but I forgot the cords! I was so frustrated! My mom graciously let me use her Juki, which only does a straight stitch. Once we figured out that the Juki liked using the thinner jeans rust-orange top-stitching thread, rather than the thick one, that little machine pounded these babies out with ease! It stitched straight and tight through the whole thing, and it even has a thread cutter! I truly think that is the reason I was able to cut these out and stitch them in one afternoon/evening/night session. All I had to do the next day was attach the jeans button (thanks to my Uncle Scott with his strong hands and ingenious method) and stitch a button hole. I haven’t found rivets I like yet, so for now, these jeans are done! I might even save rivets for my next pair.
Yes, I’m already planning my next pair! And my mom and I agreed that I should sew all my jeans on her Juki.
All of my fears about fitting were unfounded. Either that, or I just had a great pattern! I chose the size 14 based on the finished garment measurements and the fact that my denim had no stretch. The only fitting I had to do was taper in the legs below the knee (I wanted them to have a slimmer fit), hem them up about 2.5″ for the cropped look I was going for, and take in the back yoke along the center seam about 5/8″ so that the waistband needed to be cut at a size 12, to prevent gaping. It was such an easy fix and worked so well that I find myself truly impressed with the pattern and ready to make more!
Although I have to admit, when I came home and compared my jeans to some RTW ones, I saw that I had put the coin pocket on the left side accidentally, and that the pattern has the zipper open from the opposite side as well! So next time I’m going to switch both of them.
I also compared the size of the back pockets to a RTW pair and made the pattern about 5/8″ wider on each side.
Important: jeans that make your butt look good.
Watch out for next time: two peach roses that are right on the center seam! 🙂
Look at that gorgeous top-stitching! That Juki, I tell you.
2017 Sewing Goal: Perfect Jeans = Done!
