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?

Altering the jeans pattern

from left, versions one, two and three (Frida)

This is version number three, inside out, using the camera to get a clearer view of fit issues.

The front is pretty good, left of the bottom of the fly is bagging. This tells me I need to release some over that thigh. The back has 'smiles' below the crotch, which go away if I open up the back center seam about an 1/8" at the back and 1/4" at the bottom.

Small adjustments on jeans go a long way. Because they are so fitted, an 1/8" makes the fit change dramatically. The goal for me is that they skim my surface, but not bind. The better they fit, the more comfortable they are.

So the red line is the horizontal and the green is my back. Why yes, I have quite the back porch It's all going on back there.

 I need to bring in the back waist band; there's a gap you could park a car in. This happens with every pair of jeans I have ever owned.  Everything fits but that.

A stopgap solution has been putting 1" non roll elastic in the waistband from side seam to side seam. It works when I'm remodeling jeans I've bought (like the model I traced these from), but if I'm coming from scratch I can do better.

Today's cheap solution is darting in the back waist band at the center. Next edition of these I'm following the red line above and dropping the waistband on the sides and  in the front. I think this will help pull that back band in and make it fit comfortably.

The other thing the photo tells me is that my high hip has gotten taller, the side seam moves forward and that the bagging above my calves continues to the front.   I have a prominent bottom and full calves and back thighs that curve forward (and the front thighs curve even more so). This is a more complicated issue than I can mentally address with these pants at present. I need to make a new muslin if I want to address that; too much fabric needs to move around, more than just wider seam allowances could address.

 They are wearable. Hem 'em and call it a day.

Which begs a point: I find I have a certain level of detail attentiveness I can pay to a project. I can fuss over the waistband but I will give up on the next fail point. I do remake projects over and over again, refitting the pattern, adding details, working out a problem and then at the next problem...eh, I'm out.

Last year my unspoken goal was to rip fearlessly. If it didn't work, frog it, rip it, redo. A solid month of rehemming choir dresses sold me on it: it's part of the job. A survey of my closet tells me; if it doesn't fit right, I don't wear it. So it's worth the annoyance factor to make it right, and remake it if it's wrong. 

This year, it may be: stop being satisfied with 'okay'.