Jeans

I finally made my first pair of jeans!  I started them earlier in the fall, made great progress--only the waistband, belt loops, and hemming were left--then the holidays hit.  They finally got finished last month and I finally got pictures taken this month...!

I used J. Sterns Designs jeans pattern because I had taken her jeans muslin class at the ASG conference in Atlanta 2010.

Who knew that the Compensation Plate for sewing buttonholes on the Bernina machines actually worked?  If I remember correctly, even my dealer had her doubts and told me to return it if I didn't like it when I bought it.  I had gotten it orginally to help sew buttonholes on lightweight smocked dresses--those buttonholes at the top and bottom can be very difficult if you have lots of intersecting layers (collar, piping, gathering, etc) so I hoped it would help keep the buttonhole even.  It didn't.  At all.  So I learned to do buttonholes manually on my machine. 

Oddly, making a manual buttonhole on jeans wasn't working (and believe me, I first tried a regular buttonhole and I was NOT enjoying being friends with my seam ripper....!).  So, in a last ditch effort, I thought of this gadget.  Would you believe it worked beautifully????  It helped feed the bulky fabric evenly and gave a very nice buttonhole!

See?  It really is a nice buttonhole despite being redone (and ripped out) multiple times!

I think designing the back pocket stitching is the most fun thing to do when sewing jeans!  I decided to make a cypher (a weird way to do your monogram) using my initials.  At first, I planned to make the pocket flap, but as the project neared completion I opted to not include that.  Impatience factor!

Mrs. Green Jeans.  Okay, joking aside, I didn't want to use my nice, regular denim for my first pair so I bought this teal colored cheapy denim from Joann's.  Sadly, cheapy is the right word for it as I don't think it will hold up well.  It definitely seems to stretch out of shape quickly despite having no lycra.

Pockets!  It's also fun to choose the fabric for that!  Really, the topstitching doesn't show up at all on my real jeans, this is bright and shiny due to the flash.

Well, since it's my first pair, I'm not unhappy with them but I'm also not thrilled.  First, I made the waist way too tall--I didn't want those stupid low-rise jeans things which just look horrible on nearly everyone except young girls with really flat tummies!  Just sayin'.  Unfortunately, I misjudged how tall even though it seemed just right when I basted and tried them on.  Oh well, that's an easy fix for the next pair.

They are also a bit large throughout, which Jennifer had mentioned I might want to take in the seams by a bit and on the next pair I will.  The only other thing is the crotch sits low.  It starts fine but slips down moments after putting them on.  I think this is due to the waist being super loose (I need a belt) and just being a bit big in general throughout the hips.  You would think that basting and trying them on would help pinpoint these issues so they could be corrected before you get them all sewn, but either basting didn't help me or I was just too excited to finally be sewing on these to notice :)   haha!

This color doesn't go with *anything* in my wardrobe except plain white.  Boring.  So I bought a print at Joann's to make a top, which I have not gotten much of a chance to work on yet.  Besides, I still owe you pictures of the girls' pj's and my other project:  The Annual Tie Dye!