Tag Archives: jeans

Embroidered Cord over at Minerva

I can’t believe I haven’t posted these here yet! I made these jeans last year, with some embroidered cord from Minerva. To make it fit on their new website (I had too many photos for a single post!), the blog post is split into three:

OneTwoThree

I’d never sewn with cord before, let alone embroidered cord, so this was an interesting experience!

As usual, I was gifted the fabric in exchange for the blog post as part of their Minerva Makers team 😁

Minerva Product Testing

I’m over at the Minerva Crafts Blog again today with a product test of this super stretchy denim! Head on over to see what I made – I’ll give you a hint, this time I made two items!


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Pattern designers: WinterWear Designs* and From the Studio (Jamie Kemp)

Another pair of jeans, another mistake

I really don’t know how I’m making so many mistakes with jeans at the moment – my first ever pair of denim jeans came out as I expected, but since then my jeans have been going wrong!

First let’s start with the positives on these Real Deal Jeans*. I decided to do some decorative top stitching on the back yoke, and also for the back pockets. The yoke stitching isn’t overly visible unless you look closely, but that doesn’t matter as the anchor pattern is quite bold anyway.

So the back was a definite success, which means the front must have the disaster, right? I don’t know if it’s just the way I put the zip in, or if I’m missing something in the instructions, but the left side is a different height at the waistband to the right-hand side.

This is the same pair of jeans – I didn’t use the flash for this photo, so it came out a bit darker than the real shade of blue

What seems to happen, is that the zip moves (despite being pinned), and ends up slightly higher on the second side. I had this before with my Penguin RDJs but while my Dawn jeans didn’t have this mistake, these anchor jeans have a more noticeable difference between the left and right at the waistband.

Not only that, but I had a disaster with the button – when I hammered it in, it ended up skewed. 

So before I get on and sort the hem to finish these off, does anybody have any recommendations for how to remove the hammered-in button, and also to resolve the waistband problem, or will I be stuck with that lopsidedness forever?


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Pattern:  Real Deal Jeans* by WinterWear Designs*
Fabric: Anchor denim from Sewing Studio

Why do jeans always go wrong?

The front of my latest Dawn Jeans came out near enough perfect – the front left lines up with the front right, and the button hammered in exactly straight.

However, when it comes to the back, it all goes wrong! In top stitching the waistband down, I seem to have a bunch of denim, but no corresponding bulk for the waistband lining.

Of course I thought it was a good idea to top stitch using a triple straight stretch stitch, which is one of the most challenging stitches to unpick.

So before I reach for the seam ripper, does anyone have any hints or tips for the best way to unpick my mistakes?


Pattern: Dawn Jeans by Megan Nielsen 
Fabric: stretch denim from Mibs Fabrics
Inner waistband & pocket bags – polycotton from Fashion Fabrics

Dawn Jeans

I was lucky enough to be chosen as a pattern tester for the amazing Megan Nielsen Dawn Jeans and couldn’t get my fabric prepared fast enough!

The Dawn Jeans come with four options – tapered, straight, wide, and shorts. Originally I was going to make the shorts, but decided in the end to try the wide leg jeans.

These jeans are meant to have a vintage feel – kind of classic Levis, so I chose some reasonably heavy denim which had a slight give rather than any real stretch.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I don’t use topstitching thread – I know, dreadful isn’t it! When I bought my sewing machine, the shop manager enlightened me that if you use particular stitches, you can get the effect of topstitching without needing to invest in specific thread.

I prefer the look of the triple straight stretch stitch out of the options I have, and it means I can liven up my jeans without needing to buy in lots of specific thread too!

Dawn is drafted with a high waist, which I didn’t alter at all. It actually hits at a comfortable level for me, despite being only 5′ 1″, which meant I didn’t have to try and work out any alterations – yay!

Unlike other trouser patterns I’ve used before, Dawn’s pocket bags are actually sewn inside out, so the right side of the fabric shows on the inside of the jeans. Using the same fabric as the inner waistband means they blend nicely – and the inner waistband also gave me a chance to add some fancy stitching too:

Strictly speaking, the inner waistband is meant to be denim, but I was trying to squeeze these jeans out of a metre of fabric, so I only had enough for the outer waistband! I also didn’t have quite enough for a proper hem, so I added some bias binding around the raw edge to prevent it from fraying, before sewing the hem.

I also stitched lower down on the hem in a matching thread, just to make it a bit stronger.

I took in the width by a few inches on the legs, as they were a bit too wide for me! But overall, these jeans are a great fit, didn’t require much alteration other than the width (and that’s down to personal choice anyway), and I’m just waiting for the weather to get a little cooler now, so I can wear them!

One pair made, but why stop at just one?

Buoyed on by my success with those, I decided to try a straight leg pair. These are made from a lighter weight stretch denim, but I’ve stuck with the same size as my previous ones. I did have a bit of a disagreement with the button when it came to hammering it in place, but other than that, these are also really comfortable!

I wanted to do something different with the pockets on these, so this is actually glow-in-the-dark embroidery thread! I had a semi-disaster with the interfacing I’d put on the back of the pocket – I managed to melt it over the iron – so I added a lining to the pocket, to hide the gummy interfacing and also to prevent the stitches getting caught on the inside.

Again, I used the same fabric for the pocket bags and inner waistband, but this time I doubled up on the inner waistband fabric to make it stronger. 

No modelled photos of these yet, as they’re still in the UFO stage until I can get the hem measured and stitched!

I doubt I’ll be making a tapered-leg pair, as that isn’t a style I wear, but I’m planning on making some shorts for next summer if I can find some lighter weight denim, or maybe a linen blend fabric!

So what are you waiting for? Head over to Megan Nielsen, and check out the Dawn Jeans!


Pattern: Dawn Jeans by Megan Nielsen 
Fabric:
Wide-leg jeans – non-stretch denim from Sewing Studio
Straight-leg jeans – stretch denim from Mibs Fabrics
Inner waistband & pocket bags – polycotton from Fashion Fabrics

Topstitching Jeans

In preparation for an amazing pattern release later this week, I thought I’d share a quick video I made for how I tackled the topstitching over a bulky seam. 

I use regular thread, and a straight stretch stitch for strength… well, it also looks pretty good too! But going over a bulky seam is a bit of a nightmare if those stitches don’t come out straight, so how do you do it?

You could just a piece of folded fabric, or maybe some thick folded card – they’d both give the same result. But I’m using the button shank plate (which I’ve also seen called a Jean-a-ma-jig) that I got as a special deal from the shop when I bought my machine.. Normally the button shank plate is £8, but I’ve seen Jean-a-ma-jigs for about half that, so it’s worth looking round for a good price!

Ok, so how do you use it?

Sew as normal just to the point where the foot starts to lift at the front, as it tries to climb over the bulky seam.

For my button shank plate, there’s a thick side and a slightly tapered side (on the right in this photo). With the needle down, lift the foot, and gently push the tapered side under the foot at the back. Lower the foot again….

….it should now look like this! Slowly sew – you may need to use the hand wheel, depending on your machine and the thickness of your fabric!
Once the machine has stitched past the bulk, you can remove the button shank plate from the back.

Because that probably sounds way more complicated than it actually is, here’s a quick video of the button shank plate in action. I hold it in place to start with simply because I’m using a triple straight stretch stitch – that goes backwards on every third stitch, and I wanted to make sure my needle didn’t hit the plastic plate!

And there you have it – a little tip to help get topstitching to work over those bulky jeans seams!

Real Deal Jeans (non denim)

It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve been determined to finish some of my UFOs over the summer, and my Real Deal Jeans are my latest completed project!

Ok, so I admit that the Real Deal Jeans* by WinterWear Designs* are really designed for denim, but I didn’t want to attempt that just yet! This fabric is a lot lighter weight than denim, but should be perfect to wear on late summer evenings and into the autumn.

I think I lined up the back pockets a little incorrectly – they seem a lot further around to the side than they should be…. but they’re still wearable, and that’s what matters!

As you can tell, I didn’t bother pattern matching any of these pieces – with a splotchy pattern to the fabric, I didn’t really feel there was any need. And without the need to do that, I managed to get these jeans made from just one metre of fabric!


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Pattern:  Real Deal Jeans* by WinterWear Designs*
Fabric: Cotton Spandex from Sewing Studio