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:
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 😁
I had a pile of trouser projects needing hemming, so I picked these Zen Pants* out at random so I had something finished this week.
I did make a slight error on the waistband – I didn’t cut the elastic short enough, so the waistband is a little wavy in places. I’ve got around that by folding the elastic over, which disguises it a little.
I might try making the low rise next time though, as this mid rise ended up more where the high rise is meant to hit. That’s mostly down to my lack of height though – where my advantage is that I can usually squeeze trousers onto a smaller piece of fabric, I do need to learn how to make alterations on the rise…. or at least use the lower rise for patterns where there’s multiple options.
These are really comfortable to wear, and the wavy elastic isn’t something I’ve noticed, so that’s not anywhere near the problem I thought it could be.
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Pattern: Zen Pants* by 5 out of 4 Patterns
Fabric: Cotton Lycra from Fashion Fabrics
Not content with my unfinished jeans, I decided to start another pair of trousers this week…. this fabric is the same type as the penguins, polar bears and astronomy designs and has just about the right amount of stretch to make a pair of Zen Pants* by 5 out of 4 Patterns. I bought a metre and a half this time, just in case a metre wasn’t enough, and picked out a vibrant pink for the top stitching.
I played around with the back pockets, making them a hybrid of the Zen pocket, crossed with the Real Deal Jeans pocket.
And what better way to try out my new smiley face poppers, than on the cargo pocket? This is the first time I’ve tried adding a cargo pocket to a pair of trousers, and it went surprisingly well.
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Pattern: Zen Pants* by 5 out of 4 Patterns
Fabric: Cotton Elastane from Fashion Fabrics
Ok, I know I haven’t finished my first Real Deal Jeans yet, but I spotted this penguin fabric in town the other day, and couldn’t resist seeing if it’d work for another pair of jeans.
This is a stretchier fabric than the pattern calls for, so I’ll be adding in some elastic to the waistband, just to help it keep its shape.
I didn’t do any decorative stitching on the back pockets this time, as the penguins are really all the detail it needs.
These should be really comfy to wear – I just need to get on and finish sewing them now!
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Pattern: Real Deal Jeans* by WinterWear Designs*
Fabric: Cotton Elastane from Fashion Fabrics