Vogue 8774: Jeans

I've seen some great jeans pop up in the blogging world lately and it reminded me I need another pair! The last pair I made have shrunk in length (even after prewashing the denim twice) and are now in my refashion pile to be cut down into shorts.

The pattern is my TNT -  Sewaholic Thurlow legs onto the waist/hips of Vogue 8774 adjusted with my pants block. I added 1.5cm to the front inner leg with this pair as the last version had some pulling at the front.

This denim is from Spotlight tagged as Bradmill denim. Surprisingly nice, firm but still with some stretch. I bought a craftsy class back at Christmas called Sewing Designer Jeans. I highly recommend it, Angela Wolf is great in the videos and I found it really interesting about how to distress denim. I'm not sure how successful I was at it, the denim went a different colour blue instead of fading it out but I'm hoping the look will soften after a few washes. I don't think I took it quite far enough sanding it but I was worried about wearing the denim too thin.

Top stitching is with gutterman upholstery thread and the same colour in a plain polyester thread for all of the bar tacks.

The waistband has elastic in it again.

I used a great tip from Lasewist about using tape to as a template for the front fly stitching. Worked an absolute treat and will be doing it everytime I sew jeans from now on.

I made these extra long, I've always loved jeans that are a little bit too long. Comes from years of buying rtw that was too short that too long feels like a luxury.

 



 



Vogue 8774: Jeans

More jeans! Similar to this pair, I used my TNT pattern of Vogue 8774 with the legs from the Thurlow pants and used my pants block to adjust it.

The denim is from Rathdowne fabrics, its fairly stiff but seems to be wearing well.

I think I have finally cracked the perfect waistband treatment. Using a denim facing and the topstitching really does help, I think it was the cotton facings I've always used that really contributed to stretching out. Because the denim was stretch denim I also cut the waistband with a little negative ease. Using a denim facing does add a little bulk and my machine refused to sew the belt loops on but I figure its worth it.

I used high density elastic as the interfacing, other than some fusible behind the button and buttonhole the waistband has no other interfacing in it. The elastic gives it  stability and stops it folding down plus stops it stretching out over the day. I left a small section of the facing slip stitched down so if need be I can tighten (or loosen) the elastic without having to unpick the whole waistband as well.

Its a combo of Debbie Cooks elastic waistband method and Sandra Betzinas method out of Power sewing except I don't zig zag the elastic down so I can alter it a lot easier at a later date if I need to, mine is just threaded through and stitched down near the front pockets where the belt loops would normally cover it up.

I used a Gutermann upholstery thread in 968 for the topstitching and the normal poly thread for the bartacks and buttonholes.

I wanted a slightlier funky look to the back pockets this time and found these large eyelets in Lincraft. I bashed them a little too hard and if you look really closely they are slightly oval but I like the look of them, something different than just topstitching the pockets.

I've been wearing them around a lot and the legs have bagged out bu the waist hasn't so I count it as a win! I've had a terrible run of sewing lately, lots of wadders (skirts, I'm looking at you!) so its nice to sew something that fits and is really comfy to wear!



Vogue 8774: Corduroy jeans

 

I've had this stretchy thin wale corduroy in my stash for awhile, I got it on the clearance table at Spotlight ages ago. Its got a lot of stretch and is a purple/burgundy colour.

I used Vogue 8774 again and since I only did shorts on the last pair I didn't realise the legs were so straight. I shaped them a bit to be tighter on the thigh and flare slightly from the knee but next version I'm going to frankenpattern on the Thurlow legs.

I did an adjustable waistband again, I stuffed up somehow though and did the waistband narrower than the last pair and couldn't do any topstitching as I could only barely fit the elastic through!

I used a metal zipper and the facings are cotton that was from a garage sale.

I've never had a pair of corduroy pants before and they feel funny to walk in, its like the cord acts like Velcro on itself! They are seriously comfy though and something different than the usual denim jeans plus it was stash fabric!