It’s been a busy few weeks, so today we got away from the to-do lists and visited a few local independent businesses when we knew they wouldn’t be too busy. It was a welcome change of scenery and included some in-person fabric shopping for the first time in months, which was very exciting. I was after some knits in solid colours and different weighs, so exactly the kind of fabric shopping that is best in person.
Yesterday, we also took a longer than normal walk along the canal, where I got Phil to take a few photos of these jeans. I was going to blog them last night, but I sat down after the walk (which was just under two hours) and was too tired to write a word! Given how long these have taken to reach the blog, another day is neither here nor there.
I’ve been planning to make these jeans ever since Closet Case Patterns released the Ginger Jeans pattern (which, unbelievably, was in 2014), as I’ve always been a great lover of a skinny jean. My plans moved along slightly in 2016, when I ordered a jeans hardware kit from Closet Case Patterns, and this denim (10.5 Oz Cone Mills S-Gene Denim in Dark Indigo) from Threadbare Fabrics. I timed this denim order with our first trip to New York, and had the order sent to our hotel, to save on shipping costs. I did the same on our most recent trip to New York with an order of on-sale Vogue patterns, but they took so long to arrive that I almost missed them – they arrived on our last morning as we were checking out. In comparison, Threadbare were really helpful, and timed posting the denim to suit the dates of our stay.
The supplies then sat in my stash for three years. I decided that the best way to motivate myself to get started on this more involved project was to book on a jeans making workshop last August. I did mostly sew these up on that workshop, but I cut out the wrong size and, when I tried them on at the end of the weekend, I couldn’t do them up.
So back in the stash they went, until I had a thorough tidy at the start of lock down, and pulled these out of my UFOs basket. To make these jeans fit, I added in the difference between the size of the pattern I cut (6/8) and the size I actually am (10) at the side seams. I was able to work out the difference from the pattern, and had enough denim left to cut side panels, although I did have to piece the denim together to make panels long enough. You can see the side panels in the next couple of photos.
In order to add the side panels, I had to remove the waistband and unpick the side seams and top-stitching. Unfortunately, while the waistband was off I thoughtlessly did up the zip, pulling the zip pull off the top. I couldn’t find any short cuts for getting a metal jeans zipper pull back on, but managed to manually close the zip with my fingers, which was slow and frustrating, but allowed me to get the zipper pull back on!
The designs on the back pockets are my favourite part. These were on a dress I bought from a charity shop. I cut away the original dress fabric from around the flower motifs, and then zig-zag stitched over the top of these to attach them to the pockets (using different coloured threads for different parts of the flowers). I also added a Modista made in isewlation woven label to the back of the jeans, since these are one of my social distancing sewing projects.
Six years on from the initial inspiration of the pattern release, I’m glad to say that these are now in rotation in my wardrobe. I need to revisit the UFOs basket to see what I can move from stash to wardrobe next.
