I've been wanting to move my blog away from Blogspot for a while but could never be bothered to actually do it. This week was the tipping point though, and I've now fully migrated over to https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . The blogspot address will remain here but all new posts will only appear at https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . There are lots of reasons for the move but my biggest one is how hard Blogger has made it for people to subscribe to receive new posts via email. It's such a basic requirement but apparently, they think it's too much to offer. I'm basing this purely on how I myself prefer to consume this stuff. I can't be arsed with feed readers anymore and emails are easy and convenient. When I receive one, if I fancy reading it, I will click through to it and, if not, I'll just delete it. Another reason is the spat between Google (owners of Blogger) and Instagram/Facebook/Meta. I don't even know if this is still the case anymore
I've been meaning to have another go at making jeans since I made my first pair, all the way back in the summer of 2017. I can't actually believe it's that long ago! Far too long, in fact. So in order to avoid putting it off any longer, I added them to my #makenine plans. I had ordered some denim from Sewisfaction early in December so I had no excuse not to make a start.
I wanted to try the low rise, stove pipe legs version (A). I cut out a size 8 at the waist and 10 at the hips and that is SPOT ON! I had to grade out from the bottom of the waistband to the hip notch and doing that with the pocket bags and pocket facings kind of made my head hurt. I'm not sure I did it right but it didn't matter in the end because it came together without any problems. Other than the grading, I made no adjustments to the fit. All seams are as directed and they're super comfortable, there is no gaping at the waist and I think my bum looks good in them. 😉 I chose to interface the waistband. I was a little concerned that it might loosen up too much with wear and start gaping or sliding down.
I like the looser leg on this version. I have GIANT former dancer calves and that is the biggest problem with my first pair. Having looked up the measurements, the mid calf size 6 circ is 11 inches something. You know what MY calves measure? FOURTEEN!!! No wonder it feels like they're going to split every time I sit down. These are so much better. The legs are maybe a little looser than I'd like above and below the calves. I supposed I could bring them in a bit below, but if I did it above, I wouldn't be able to get them on without overstretching as it goes over my calves so I'll leave them as they are. However, I want to make the high waist version again and I'll definitely have to do a full calf adjustment on them.
I learned that neither of my machines like Mettler topstitching thread. Not at all. I think it might be too thick. I tried and tried and tried, messed with tension a lot and spent ages trying to make it work because it was the only orange thread I had on hand. It wasn't happening. Lots of orange showing on the inside, no matter how tight the tension was. In the end, I went with a dark grey Gutermann thread instead and I actually love the way it looks. It's more subtle than the orange and I think I can dress it up more easily.
The fly was a breeze to put together. Last time I struggled and had to look it up online. This time, it went in perfectly on the first try and I'm very proud of it. The zip is always a little longer than you need so I pulled some of the metal teeth off - I didn't want to risk hitting them with my needle. One thing I'm a little annoyed about is where my buttonhole ended up. I'm nitpicking here but it's a bit too far from the edge. It's not really noticeable until I mention it and I wear belts with my jeans if the waistband is on show. I think I'd rather it was too far in than too close to the edge allowing the zip pull to peek out.
The fabric is amazing. I'm on the waitlist for the lighter blue one because I want more jeans like these. It was a joy to sew with and not too bulky either. I was worried about dye transfer since it's a very dark denim but there was none of that. A total winner!