Hot Date Jeans!

Sometimes, the sooner one accepts that one is a freak and gets on with it, the better.

I accepted this fact a long time ago.

With my recent weight loss, I have found myself pining for pants that fit me. Really fit me and that do not swim around my backside. People will say to me, without much sympathy, "just make some!"

If it were only so easy. None of my TNT patterns fit me any more. I have "measured out" of most pattern lines. My hips are now 34", which is a size 4 in the Big 4. Most patterns do not even go down to a size 4. I have tried a couple, but they have a "trouser" like fit through the rear - in other words, they loosely skim the derriere region.

I do not want a trouser like fit, with no butt definition. I want a jeans-like fit. I used to go down a size in the back for a better fit, but I can't do that anymore, at least not in most patterns.

I have become a butt-less wonder. Woe is me.

Finally, out of desperation, I bought two pair of jeans on ebay. I went to the store to figure out what size I now wear in the Not Your Daughter's Jeans brand. The size 0 fit me through the hips, but I could not zip them over my ooshy-gooshy belly. Because, you see, if you have a 34" hip, you are supposed to have a 25" waist. My waist is somewhere around 32", depending on the time of day and how snugly I'm pulling on the tape measure.

In the end, I compromised on a size 2 in the NYDJ brand. These are still a bit roomy through the hip, and they also throttle me in the waist. It's nothing I can't handle, but it's not the most ideal situation.

So I decided to give the Jalie Jeans pattern another try, mostly because of the enormous range of sizes they come in. Back when I last made a pair, a couple years ago, I had traced off a size V. According to their chart, my hips are now a size Q.

That is a childrens size. The size of a 13-year-old, if you believe their chart.

Hence the freak comment.

My waist is between a size U and W on the Jalie chart. That is no problem, of course, but just a matter of a minor alteration, of several pattern pieces.

I traced off a size Q, enlarged the waist and all of the corresponding pattern pieces (mostly pockets), straightened the lower leg to remove the boot cut, grabbed some pink denim and some printed denim, and my plans for Memorial Day weekend were complete.

I first made the pink jeans. For these, I used a straight leg, but otherwise followed the pattern as designed. Wait, that's not quite true. Instead of an actual zipper, I used a mock fly and an elastic waist. Now, I know many of you scorn the elastic waistband. And if you have a waist that is several inches smaller than your hips, I understand why. But if, like me, you have a 1" or 2" difference between your waist and hips, an elastic waistband makes a lot of sense and doesn't add bulk. Believe me in this and do not scorn me.

Working on the front pockets
and the back pockets

I have to thank Margy for this excellent denim, sourced from Emma One Sock. It was listed as red stretch denim, but when it arrived, Margy didn't feel it was her red, so I gratefully inherited this lovely fabric. It it such a light red, that I call it pink, though it's more like a soft strawberry red.

I was pretty happy with these jeans, so I went back to the pattern and created a more tapered leg. For the second pair, I wanted to change things up. I wanted to use some big, bold zippers I had found locally and a wild printed black-and-white denim. (I'm not positive, but it may have come from Emma One Sock, but long ago.) I wanted to make this pair more tapered, with angled front zipper pockets and zippers at the hem. I had pinned some pants to my Pinterest Jeans board for inspiration.

This pair sewed up quickly. I had to change the order of construction around, due to the zippers, but it was not difficult.

I just love these jumbo zippers! I wish I could get more of them. They are 7" long, 1.5" wide, and the teeth are 3/8" wide.

I plan to create a tutorial showing how I inserted the zippers into the hem.

Oh, you probably want to know, are these jeans really for a hot date? No, I was joshing you. I did wear them tonight, but it was to an event at DD2's high school - she was giving her senior project presentation. Afterwards, a friend and I went out for dinner. A fun evening, but hardly a hot date. :)

Jalie Yoga Pants - 3022

I need some new TNT pants that are more fitted, so I decided to try the new-ish Jalie Yoga pants pattern, 3022. This pattern calls for a 4-way stretch knit, but I didn't have a bottom weight 4-way stretch knit, so I used a 2-way stretch ponte.

I traced off a size S, based on my hip measurement. I made no other changes to the pattern. These fit great! I love the RTW look, fit, and styling of the Jalie patterns. The 2-way knit (instead of a 4-way) was no problem at all.

These pants were folded up in a suitcase for a few days, hence the wrinkles. I was too lazy to press them for the pics.

In the interest of full disclosure, I saved the following picture for last.

I have been feeling that many of my clothes are making me look a bit frumpy (having lost 22 lbs so far). I can take in some of my things (though not all), but I haven't yet started the altering process, which I really hate. This top, which I really like, is one I can't easily alter because of the cool pointed asymmetric pocket, which is sewn into the side seam.

So, for the photos, I used a technique used frequently in professional photo shoots. I used a hair clip to clip the back of the top to remove extra fullness. I even took a photo of the back so you can see my naughtiness. I wish it were only that easy to alter for real!

I really love these pants and need to make a few more pair!

A couple more things:

Vote for Rhonda!

Rhonda Buss, of Rhonda's Creative Life, attended Sew Expo in Puyallup as one of five semi-finalists to appear in a spot on the sewing television program, Sew It All. After that presentation, which you can view at the link below, she made it to the finals. It is now down to her and two other contestants who are competing as a sister-in-law team. I thought she had a great entry – you can see her video if you click the following image link.

Please vote!

Finally, I'm sure you have seen that the blogosphere is a-twitter with the news that Google Reader is going away on July 1st. I guess Google just isn't interested in being in the biz anymore. But all is not lost - there are other alternative readers out there. In fact, Mary, of Mary Sews, has written a nice post on replacements for Google Reader. Personally, I don't use Google Reader, I use Blogger Dashboard, but you don't have that unless you have your own blog on blogspot.

I decided to add a widget to my blog to make it easier to follow using Bloglovin. (You can see it in the upper left corner of my blog.) I experimented with Bloglovin' and it's great. It's easy to set up, easy to use, and you can choose to have your favorite blogs sent as an email if you prefer. In fact, Jillian wrote a nice post on how to set up a bloglovin' account. And it's free!

Thanks, ladies, for all of the useful info that you share!!! The internet/blog sewing community is fabulous!

Christmas Sewing

I don't usually sew Christmas gifts. I often will knit Christmas gifts, but that didn't happen this year, for a variety of reasons. Several days ago I was evaluating the gifts I'd purchased for my daughters for Christmas and I realized it was scant offerings this year, especially considering that I didn't knit any hats, scarves, or wrist warmers.

So, at the last minute, I decided to sew something. I rarely sew for my daughters. Probably the biggest reason is to avoid frustration. They are both very choosy about style, fit, pattern, and color. Particularly about fit. It's just easier to buy them clothing or, better yet, let them buy their own.

But I decided to bite the bullet and hope for the best. I spent a lot of time anxiously considering various options. I wanted to use stash and/or remnants for everything. I measured each of them when they visited on separate occasions. (I know they are expecting jammies this year, so I hope they won't be disappointed.)

I was very surprised that the girls (at 20 and almost-18 years old) have virtually identical measurements, though the oldest is 2 inches taller. Yay! That was very considerate of them.

I poured through my small pile of Burda pattern magazines. I scoured my stash for multi-sized patterns that might accommodate them, but still be youthful and current. (Even if my girls shared my aesthetic, which they don't, most of my patterns are in a range that is too large for them.)

I wanted the outfits to believably mimic RTW and be coordinated - no point in sewing fashion orphans. I poured through various RTW websites intended for the young, such as Delias, Urban Outfitters, and Zara, to make sure I wasn't off base in my ideas.

In the end, I decided on a wrap skirt (#128) from the Sept 1994 issue of Burda (size 38) and a Jalie Sweetheart Top (size S). For the two skirts, I had some stretch denim remnants from my recent spate of skinny pants sewing, though I really had to work it to get the skirt out of the tiny piece of blue flocked fabric and ended up piecing the waistband. In my stash, I had some nice viscose/lycra (in black) and rayon/lycra (in eggplant) - each fabric coordinates with one of the skirts.

I made the skirts on Thursday and Friday evenings, after work. I made the two tops on Saturday. What quick, satisfying sewing! (So this is what it's like to just sew right from the envelope!) From my stash I had snaps (I love to use my SnapSetter tool) and closures for the skirts. I had tried sewing the black denim skirt with contrast gold top-stitching, but didn't like the result and spent an hour ripping it out.

Amusing aside: I had one small spool of eggplant thread in my stash. I'm sure this old style Dual Duty spool was from my mother's cache. I neglected to notice as I was winding the bobbin that it used up almost the entire spool. Not wanting to head to the fabric store two days before Christmas for a spool of thread, I sewed most of the top using a "close enough" brown thread in the needle and saved the eggplant thread for where it would show, such as the hems, top-stitching, and attaching the bust elastic. I have more of the eggplant fabric, so I'd better buy more of this color!

We celebrate our Christmas on the 24th, so I am crossing my fingers that these outfits will fit and they will like them! (Though, in full disclosure, I only attached the snaps and skirt closures to the right side of the skirts. This way I can have them put them on, mark the correct positions, and quickly attach the other halves.)

I was happy with both patterns and think that the Jalie top is especially cute. It's a bit fussier to sew, with it's 1/4" seam allowances and small pattern pieces, than a normal tee, especially with these flimsy non-stable knits, but is not too bad.

The only change I made on the Jalie pattern was to the little band on the front. Because of the vertical elastic, the band on top flopped a bit, so I sewed out a small wedge of fabric so it would lie flat. The photos show what it looks like:

For the skirt, I omitted the pocket and contrast top-stitching.

I hope you have a nice Christmas, if you celebrate. For me, I have the week off between Christmas and New Years. My sewcation begins on Dec 25th as the kids spend the day with the other side of the family.

Ready, set, SEW!

Sweatshirt Mash Up (Jalie, Au Bonheur, Style Arc) & General Bead

I had a small, but wide, piece of nice fleece from Fabrix in a sage green color and wanted to squeeze out a top. I also had Jalie 2911, which had a cross-over folded back collar I wanted to use. (And I love the creative version of this top that JillyBe made last winter.)

After reading reviews of the top, and looking at pictures of the finished top, I decided to transfer the collar to one of my TNT patterns. In this case, I used the pattern I recently used for a color blocked tee.

I made a new tracing of my top (sans seam allowances) and transferred the collar and shoulder from the size AA (sans seam allowances) to my pattern. I traced off the size AA collar (sans seam allowances). I eliminated seam allowances because each of these patterns uses a different amount of seam allowance (or none at all) - I then added 3/8" seam allowance to all pattern pieces.

The sleeve and armscye are from the Style Arc Adele. The body is from the Au Bonheur Asymmetric tee, though I used just one side, making it symmetric, and I lengthened and straightened the hem. (The Au Bonheur tee had already been significantly altered to fit me.)

Other than constructing the top with side slits, I made no additional alterations, though I should have added a bit more fabric at the side seams, because this fabric, while stretchy, isn't as stretchy as the ITY knit I used for the Au Bonheurs top, so this top is a bit va-va-voom on me. ;)

Make sure you align the collar properly before sewing the bottom seam - I had to re-pin several times because I kept inserting a twist.

I think the collar is ok. I don't quite like how it behaves where it folds back at the shoulder - it seems a bit wide to me. There are 5 thicknesses under the presser foot at the bottom horizontal collar seam, which is a bit unwieldy, especially in this thick fabric. Maybe this collar would work better in a lighter weight fabric.

Thoughts?

The nice thing is that I started this top at 6pm last night (Friday). I traced it off, cut it out, and sewed it up. It's nippy in the air this morning, so this is the perfect top for this weather!

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General Bead

I wanted to mention a mini outing I had after lunching with BadMomGoodMom. I decided I needed more of the fun brass balls used in this necklace:

General Bead is one of those quirky San Francisco institutions. Though, before you go, you should check out the reviews on Yelp. I've never reviewed it on Yelp, but I won't dispute the comments on the location, smell, pets, or inventory. Nevertheless, I enjoy popping in there from time to time when I need beads, particularly seed beads or the like.

There is also a second floor with plastic beads, and sequins, including vintage sequins. Unless those have sold out... I took classes from Kenneth King twenty years ago and he used to buy the vintage sequins in massive quantities, as well as beads and findings, before he moved to NYC. :)

The object of my desire. Funky brass beads.

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Also, there have been additions to the Tablecloth Skirt Gallery, so check it out!

Jalie Jeans - My Second, and Last, Pair

Almost exactly one year ago I made my first pair of Jalie Jeans. Initially, I was pleased with the fit and authentic RTW look. When I completed my jeans, there were already 70 reviews for this pattern on Pattern Review, so I didn't bother to add one more. I just checked and there are now 93 reviews of this pattern, which was ranked as one of the "best patterns of 2009".

Popular indeed.

As I wore my jeans, I liked the look of them, but I quickly realized that they were less than satisfactory. When it comes to pants, my shape is akin to...

The phenomenon boils down to this equation:

     Lack of waist + Smaller hips = Pants that fall down

I am not ready for suspenders, and don't ever expect to be (not with my bust!), so I resort to using a belt. But, even with a snug-fitting belt, my pants have a tendency to fall down. This is crazy-making.

And then there was that time that I couldn't find my belt, and I was in a hurry to get to work, so I threaded some elastic through the belt loops and left the house "Jethro style", hoping that the ends of the elastic wouldn't work their way out from where I had tucked them into my jeans, and peek out from under my top. (I couldn't risk a wardrobe malfunction at work!)

Sigh

There was one other annoying issue I had with my first pair of jeans. I had hemmed them in the traditional way, with a narrow hem top-stitched in contrast gold thread. From the first wash after the jeans were completed (I had prewashed the denim fabric more than 3 times), the hem flipped to the outside. No amount of ironing would make those hems behave. This drives me nuts.

I posed the question on how to eliminate the "hem-flipping-to-the-outside" problem, both to Carolyn, Jeans Queen, and on Stitcher's Guild. The consensus seems to be that the only way to avoid this is to use a wider hem. So that's what I did.

(By the way, I covet Carolyn's jeans and cords, in particular her purple jeans, her rust cords, and her black cords. I thought she also had an olive green pair, but I couldn't find them on her blog.)

I thought I would give the Jalie Jeans pattern one more try. This time I would put elastic in the waistband. The result? It helps, but already I can see that I will be tugging these pants up endlessly, even though I made the elastic fairly tight.

Pffft.

You know, I wish people would stop deriding elastic waist pants. For some of us, they work better than a more fitted pant.

Materials:

• Pinwale stretch corduroy, in cream, from FabricMart. This is no longer on their site, but it was a Jones New York fabric and I think it was 97% cotton, 3% spandex. I have seen pinwale corduroy described as lightweight, but this stuff is very beefy. Much heavier than the denim I used for my first pair, though that does not impede the stretch. I ordered 2.5 yards, but FabricMart sent me 5, along with a note stating that there were some spots on the fabric, so they had given me another 2.5, and to let them know if the spots did not come out, or if I had any other issues. Customer service, indeed. (The spots did come out in the wash.) I machine washed/dried the fabric twice to eliminate shrinkage.
• 1" elastic for the waistband.
• In addition to regular sewing thread, Guterman white top-stitching thread.
• A Coats/Clark 9" jeans zipper in white w/ brass teeth from JoAnns. (I cut it to length.)
• A pewter "heart" button from Fabrix.
• Scrap of a beige-colored flesh-toned silk charmeuse to finish the cut edge of the front pocket. (These were faux pockets because I didn't want the pocket bag to show through the cream fabric.)
• Scrap of beige-colored linen to use as fly shield.

Alterations & Modifications

• Inserted 1" wide elastic in waistband.
• Used a wide hem.
• I didn't want the front pockets to "show through" the cream fabric, so I made "faux pockets." I used scraps of silk charmeuse in a beige-flesh-tone to cut shaped facings to finish the pocket opening.
• I used a scrap of beige-colored linen to cut out the fly shield.

This pic shows the faux front pockets (the back pockets are real), the pewter heart button, and the elastic in the waistband, which I ended a couple inches from the front so I could make the button and buttonhole.

The back of the faux front pockets. You can see the silk charmeuse (on the left) that I used to face the pocket opening.

Conclusion

I can see I will still need to wear a snug belt with these pants. I think in future, if I need jeans, I will adapt the Linda pant from Style Arc. I have made 3 pair of Linda pants, and none of them fall down. :)

Oh, these pants are garment #4 in my Autumn 6-pack. I have 2 tops and a jacket left to make. (Yes, I know that is 7 pieces. :) )

More Pictures

I took these pics at 8:30am today (Saturday). It has been so dark and foggy the last couple of days. After I took these pics, I took this picture of my street.

I then turned and took this picture of the alley, where I take most of my pictures. Can you see the car coming down the alleyway? It's not that far away but, with the fog, you can barely see it even though they have their headlights on.

And speaking of weather, I hope everyone in the path of Hurricane Irene stays safe, and with electricity! I hope to see new projects that happened because folks are staying indoors. Even if said project is a baby or two. ;)

Jalie 2908 - Blue Jean Goodness!

First, thanks to each of you who posted on my first blogiversary entry. I truly appreciate all of your comments and feedback – it definitely motivates me to keep posting. :)

I managed to surprise myself by exercising a little self discipline – I focused and I made myself a pair of jeans! Phew, jeans are a lot of work, but there is a certain satisfaction too, especially since the RTW brand I most recently purchased cost over $100 and tends to throttle me through the waist.

For some time I have been accumulating supplies and patterns for the Jeans Project. I initially planned try the current Sandra Betzina jean pattern, Vogue 1034. A month or two ago I spread the pattern out and laid my one pair of (fits-well-through-the-hips-but-strangles-the-waist) Not Your Daughter's Jeans (NYDJ) jeans on top. Wow. Even the smallest size on the pattern was much larger than my NYDJ jeans, and the shape was quite different. So I put that pattern away and ordered three patterns that have received excellent reviews online.

Left to right: Vogue 7608 (OOP), Jalie 2908, J. Stern 0037

For those not familiar with Jalie patterns, they are from Canada and they contain all sizes (from young child to plus-size adult) in one envelope. For example, the size range for the jeans was girls size 2 to size 13 and women's size 4 to size 22.

I bought a couple pieces of indigo stretch denim from JoAnns and Fabrix, and one piece in white from Emma One Sock. I searched, high and low, for a nice stretch black denim, to no avail, though I did buy some black knit "denim" from Emma One Sock, perfect for jeggings. I washed and dried all of the fabric pieces multiple times. I also purchased Wonder Tape (for the fly front, as per Debbie Cook's tutorial, though mine was sold by Dritz), a good quality metal zipper, blue jeans rivets and buttons (from Junior), a cute cotton print for the pocket lining (purchased for a couple dollars in San Diego), Gutterman top-stitching thread in several colors, and sewing machine needles specifically for jeans.

In the end, I decided to start with Jalie. This pattern has become quite famous and, as of this writing, has 70 reviews on Pattern Review, many of them positively ecstatic about this jean. I didn't read many of the reviews (it was a bit overwhelming), but I did scan through the photos to see if anyone who made them had my particular shape. I couldn't find any. Typical. ;)

I traced off a size V, View B (regular rise), based on my 40" hip, but I increased the waist considerably and I shortened the leg at the knee by 1". I made up a quick and dirty muslin of one leg only. I was using what was left of an old, holey flannel sheet and I didn't have enough for the entire pants, so I made one leg. The leg was fairly fitted through the knee, and the length seemed ok (it was rather hard to tell), but, wow, what a wedgie it gave me! I decided that I needed to muslin both legs, so I used what remained of the sheet to muslin a short version of the pant, but one that went all the way around. Again, what a wedgie!!!

It was about this time I realized I had omitted the back yoke from both muslins. lolol This shortened the crotch length by several inches, so no wonder I was experiencing a wedgie.

After both muslins were complete, I altered the pocket yoke, pocket lining, pocket facing, back yoke, and the waistband to accommodate the new waist shaping, and cut them out of a stretch denim, giving myself another quarter inch of fabric on each side of the knee where it was most tapered (front and back - a 1" increase total). I think this denim came from JoAnn's, though it might have been Fabrix. I would guess that it is an 8-9oz denim with 3% spandex. The denim is definitely a bit lightweight but had the most stretch of my available pieces, so I wanted to start with that. I have read that before cutting a stretch fabric like this, it's best to let it relax on the cutting table for awhile before cutting it out. So I did.

Before I cut my jeans out, while the fabric was busy kicking back and "relaxing", I rummaged through DD1's pant drawer. I pulled out all of her jeans, jeggings (leggings made to look like jeans), denim skirts, jean shorts. Sheesh, there must have been 15 different garments in all, and she tells me she has more at her dad's house. Previously, I had stopped by my local Goodwill Boutique and looked at their rack of upscale jeans (for $20-$30 a pair). I studied back pockets, belt loops, front pockets, coin pockets, top-stitching. The variety is so interesting, but so is the uniformity. For example, out of my daughter's 15 jean-style garments, all but one had a coin pocket. All of the coin pockets were 2 1/4" wide, except for one that was 3 1/4", but that one was a welted pocket, not a patch pocket.

In the end, I decided to leave off the coin pocket, which isn't included on the pattern anyway, not to mention that I've never used a coin pocket - my stubby fingers can't possibly retrieve coins from that narrow little opening while plastered against the body, though I guess I could take my pants off to retrieve the pocket's contents. ;) I also decided to keep the back pocket plain, but I enjoyed all the creative variety I saw in RTW.

After much deliberation, I decided to topstitch with the classic gold-colored, heavy thread. I generally like my top-stitching to match, so this was a bit outside my comfort zone, but these are jeans, for heavens sake, and I felt I should get with the program. I used two spools of Gutterman top-stitching thread (color: 865) and I set up a second sewing machine just for top-stitching. (More about the machine in another post.) I also used my serger to finish the seams, so this project had me running between three machines set up in two rooms. Because the gold top-stitching was so bold, and I was using a machine that was unfamiliar to me (so I kept making mistakes that were quite obvious), I did a fair amount of ripping - more than I can ever remember doing for one garment.

This was my first Jalie pattern and the instructions were... deficient. I can't remember the last time I made a fly front (but it's been over 20 years), and it was difficult to make sense of the Jalie instructions/diagrams, so I referenced Debbie Cook's excellent Jeans Fly Tutorial, which I hope is always available on the web. As recommended in her tutorial, I used the same cotton fabric for the fly shield as for the pocket lining. She doesn't mention this detail, but when it was time to attach the waistband to the pant, I used the wire cutters (from my jewelry-making supplies) to remove the zipper teeth from the seam line and waistband seam allowance. That way I didn't have to worry about breaking a sewing machine needle or the added bulk.

Even though I don't plan to wear these with a belt, I included belt loops. How else can I pull my pants up? :) If you follow the instructions you will end up with a few raw edges. For example, the back of the belt loops are left raw, so I used Fray Block in those instances to secure the edges. (Had I thought of it, I would have serged one long edge of the belt loops beforehand.) The front pocket yoke was sewn to the pocket lining with a 1/8" seam and left raw - so I zigzagged over that edge.

The pocket yoke is stitched to the pocket lining with a 1/8" seam. After taking this picture, I zigzagged around the raw edge of the denim.

In the end, I didn't use the rivets or jeans button from Junior. My denim was too lightweight and, after trying a sample, I realized I would have to cut down the nail portion of the rivets and the button. I was determined to finish these jeans by Sunday night, and it was more effort than I wanted to expend, so I sewed on a 10 cent brass button from Fabrix and called it a day.

I have to say it - 70 ecstatic reviewers aren't wrong. These are great jeans. My only alteration after they were constructed was to cut another inch off the bottom. The jeans fit, they are amazingly comfortable, they are flattering, and they are wedgie-free! DD1 gave me a very enthusiastic thumbs up and especially loved the pocket/fly shield fabric. I had planned to make a white pair for the summer, but since we are now entering fall, I may just wait until next spring. When I told DD1 that I wanted to make a white pair she said, "How 80s!"

Hmm... Is that a bad thing? :)