Materials

Materials

So apart from a pattern, fabric and the usual sewing tools (machine, scissors, thread, etc), what additional things will you need to sew a pair of jeans? 

The following are pretty much essential:

• topstitching thread - the colour is entirely your choice, whatever goes with your fabric or floats your boat.  Some instructions say that you can double up on standard thread for topstitching - this is okay if it's purely decorative but the function of topstitching in jeans is to make the seam much stronger, and the right thread gives a better result.
• Topstitching needles - don't even try to squeeze topstitching thread through the eye of a normal needle.  It won't go easily and, if it does, it won't sew well.  Apart from having a larger eye, a topstitching needle has a channel in the shank that allows the thread to squish into it as the needle goes through the fabric.
• A hammer.  Really, yes, a hammer.  Denim is generally quite a thick cloth and some of the seam overlaps will give you 6 or more layers of fabric.  Asking your machine to punch its way through all this without complaint can be asking a bit much.  By hammering the thicker seam joints down, you will be able to sew them much more easily.  Think of it as the fabric equivalent of a steak tenderiser.
• Jeans button.  You can, of course, use a normal button, but the metal jeans button is a distinctive element.
• Rivets - these are really optional rather than essential as there are other ways of strengthening corners and stress points, but they are seen in most jeans.  If you don't fancy using them, get some extra topstitching thread!

So that's the stuff you might not have thought of.  Let's have a chat about the basics, i.e. your fabric.