Free peeks at K King Tailoring

I don't have the moola for Kenneth King's Smart Tailoring videos at the moment, but the online order page has some lovely chapter sneaks. And they are whole chapters, not 30 second snips.

That is an entire 3 minutes of smarty goodness

Linky here! 

Polka Dot Jeans - Jeans 2015

Pattern Review Jeans Contest Gallery

I have been in the thrall of sewing jeans for over a year. 

So when Pattern Review announced another jeans contest, I began my planning. Update my self-drafted "Jeanius!" King class pattern to v 6.6 "bottom up" jeans

Sky blue and gold upholstery fabric, in the Fortuny style!

No, this isn't the actual fabric. But it's close.

Alas, rules state: only denim twill.

Okay, new plan.

Disorder Dot print

 Yes, I designed a fabric for these jeans for this contest. It's not that hard, and you get a nifty discount on your own prints.

Spoonflower cotton twill

And here they are. Reversed fly and all.

Version 6.6:  reversed yoke bottom up polka dot Mom jeans.

Mom dancing (as seen on Kimmel)

Who doesn't love a PicMonkey collage? The coin pocket is my standard welt version, to match the waistband/pocket fabric.

 Yes, I love polka dots. I believe that navy polka dots have a strange power over others, and can bend them to my will. 

Or at least my spouse. Works on him. Good enough.

More nifty topstitching deets! This is where I admit that I am not keeping these pockets on for regular wear; I hate back pockets, but this is a contest and leaving them off seemed unfair.   I never put on belt loops. That I didn't budge on. I could photoshop some on, but that is really cheating.

And now, the nasty fitting details! If you don't enjoy staring at photos of wrinkles on butts, perhaps I can redirect you to my Pinterest page tab up top? The "Marvelous" board is all cartoons!

The digital camera is the gift that keeps on giving me the opportunity to stare at my butt. Which frankly I don't care to do, so I pretend it's someone else's fitting problem, and then it's all scientific-y and a trouble shooting opportunity. 

Wrinkles form where there's too much fabric in one direction AND not enough in the other. The "too much" is parallel to the wrinkle, the "not enough" is at the ends.

The red lines are the deepest wrinkles, and they are indicating two solutions. One, I can take in the crotch curve in the center of that circle the red lines describe. Or, I can let out the seams in the inner leg.

There's nothing left to let out in the inner leg, so we're taking in the crotch curve.

Like so. I did this about a billion times today. Yes, it's cleaned up and refinished.

There are still wrinkles. And any wearing ease I had is gone.  But the crotch curve is better, so I will take these, correct the pattern from them, ADD about 1/8" to the outside seams, and it should be good.  

And ready for the Fortuny!

not the actual material, but wouldn't that be sweet?

The trick is to get them close but not tight.  That way they don't bind or ride up, I can sit in them without rearranging me or them. 

And now I never want to look at my butt again. Oh my gawwwwwd...

Jeans x3 Sources

I didn't figure this out by myself. Nope.

I read. I traced my starter pattern from a favorite pair of jeans. I stared at jeans online. I gazed at my spouse's jeans in the laundry room and stole details far and wide.

I would never have done it for real without these pants.

The Pants of the King (from Craftsy class video)

I cannot begin to say how big an inspiration Kenneth King is. The man made himself jeans out of Fortuny fabric that a client gave him. Go ahead, go look at that page first. Would you? Why not?

  I cannot find a link online to the Fortuny jeans story from Threads that inspired this whole project, but there is the Craftsy class. Watch the trailer for a glimpse into the different pairs he's figured out. Even though I didn't take that class, I did trace mine from a pair that fit, and I would still give Mr King my money for his brain power. I hope to, in person, someday this year. He'll be in Tacoma soon! Maybe!

And now to the online info parade:

Grainline studio fly tutorial breaks it down nicely

wonderful fly tutorial

Male Pattern Boldness Does Not Baste His Seam And Tells You Why. Photo: Male Pattern Baldness

another fly view

Handmade by Carolyn's lovely fly. Photo: Handmade by Carolyn

handmade by carolyn 'french' fly

It was a furious set of giggles that showed up reading the last one. The image came up on my "you really don't participate in Pinterest enough' junk mail, and lo and behold, it's probably the blog entry right before the one I started subscribing to 'Handmade by Carolyn' with. She takes inspirational self portraits. I know, everyone follows her, but she's really that good. Even her dog does a good selfie.

I do keep coming back to the same bloggers over and over again, sometimes by accident. More often that not, as a good reference from an internet search. Coincidence?

I have a few more jeans to make: they fit, they're comfortable, and that's all I am wearing right now. I just don't want to bother with the other pants anymore.

I'm in love with pants! Who'da thought?