I finally finished my first ever pair of jeans! These are the Ginger Jeans by Closet Case Files. The fabric is an Italian stretch denim from GirlCharlee. I chose to start with the high waisted version with the skinny leg because I love the skinny jean and I also don’t have any high waisted jeans so I thought it would be a fun addition to my wardrobe.
I relied heavily on the Jeans Ebook that Heather released. I probably could have gotten by with just the build-along blog posts but I really liked having the PDF on my computer so I didn’t have to worry about which tabs in my browser I needed to keep open or switching between blog posts for different days of the sew along.
Once I based the pants together I fixed a couple of fit issues. I took some excess fabric off of the side seams and inseams. I took some extra fabric off of the side seams at the knee. I also pinned out some darts in the waistband and yoke to account for my sway back.
When I sewed the pieces together for real it felt like magic. Some how my topstitching lines pretty much matched up every time!
Let me start here by saying that I love my sewing machine. I’ve had it since I went to college and we’ve spent a lot of time together. It can do a lot of amazing things. Two things it really struggles with are bar tacks through more than 2 layers and button holes through any sort of bulk. I had to pick out a bar tack 3 times. If you’ve ever had to do this then you know that it is the absolute worst. Also – I’m pretty sure this ended up weakening my fabric instead of strengthening it…
When I tried the button hole with the automatic length sensor it felt the resistance from the bulk of the fabric and made the smallest possible button hole. To try to get this to make a button hole I did my best to press the fabric as flat as possible and also arrange the fabric in the sewing machine so the button hole starts with the thickest part and goes back to an area with less bulk. This ended up finally creating a successful button hole.
Then I made a huge mistake. I tried pulling the zipper teeth out with pliers but my pliers aren’t very good and it was very difficult. I thought that I had read somewhere that you could cut the zipper teeth off the zipper instead of using pliers. However, after I finished topstitching the waistband I tried on my jeans and went to zip them up and I zipped the slider right off of the zipper.
In order to fix this I slowly and carefully acted as a human slider to carefully line up the zipper teeth and close them together. Once I had done that I slid the zipper slider back on to the zipper and unzipped. I then tacked the zipper down to the zipper fly by sewing in between the top tooth and the second to top tooth. So far this has prevented any further fly mishaps.
I ended up raising my back pockets 1/2 inch though I might go a little higher next time. I’ve since read that other folks making these have pretty regularly taken their back pockets up 1 inch.
I then went to town on hammering in my button and rivets. This is a super fun step in the process but I’m glad I didn’t attempt this late at night since it is definitely a loud activity!
To be honest, I’m not really sure high waisted jeans really suit me or my style. Most of the ready to wear jeans that I own are low waisted, skinny jeans with topstitching that matches the denim. I like the more laid back and subtle style so I’m going to try the low waisted jeans with a more subtle top stitching thread for my next project. I’m still trying to figure out where the find hardware that is less shiny though. For now I’ll be wearing these untucked for a more laid back look and occasionally tuck in when I want to make a statement.
As always, Toby was a super helper.
