Tuesday 9 April 2013

Dream Jeans - fingers crossed

First, a very public thank you to Dolcevita for taking up the challenge to run this jeans sew-along.  Mwaaah, you are a star.

Why sew my own jeans?
That's easy, I dream of wearing some jeans that Fit me properly.
With short legs, prominent thighs and a lo-slung, triangle bum, even in more slender days, finding a pair of jeans to fit properly was always a mission impossible (cue theme tune).  With an older, somewhat chunkier form and the addition of a matronly tum, finding some RTW jeans that I'm willing to be seen wearing in daylight out of the house is as elusive as rainbow gold.

The body I have is the one I must dress, I have all sorts of whizzy-gizmo toys, and I can sew, so sew Morgan Jeans it is.
In anticipation or celebration (not sure which really) I've bought a belt loop folder for the Babylock.  Of course with a new piece of kit (okay it's more toys) playtime beckons and who knows, these jeans may have straps here, there and everywhere by the time we're finished.

For machines, I'll use one of the Janomes for SM construction jobs, the babylock overlocker for finishing where needed and coverstitch for the belt loops.  Also as it's due an outing I plan to use the Singer 201K handcrank for top stitching.

Pattern ChoiceMcCalls 5142 The Perfect Jean 

Style details
From View D  as a starting point I shall make my mid-rise, bootleg jeans with a straight V-yoke and a contoured waistband because of my waist to hip ratio - curvy gal, nuff said.

Fabric:  A smooth cotton twill in a stone or sage green shade is my first choice, but this may change so decisions about embellishment, pocket shapes, top stitching, rivets and the like are in the pending tray.

Concerns:  Only one - getting a good crotch / top of inseam fit.
Fitting trousers on myself is the one area I struggle with.  Even with the benefit of attending a trouser fitting course, it's a bit of a battle to get a decent fit.  As jeans are probably the closest fit trousers style, this may be a bit of a challenge.  As the received wisdom is that the fit gets better with each pair of jeans made, these will be a step along that road to my dream jeans.

Another minor point is, having read some reviews of the pattern and looking at photos of finished jeans from the pattern, it may be better to start with View A rather than D because I don't want baggies.  That's back to the fitting adjustments I suppose.

1 comment:

  1. Oooh, you sound so confident its getting scary now :)

    I'm also using a McCalls pattern M5894

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