Jeans Sewalong: Week 3

We just finished week 3 of the jeans sew-along and we are getting achingly close to finishing these jeans up. We actually got to try on our jeans for the first time, which was definitely the most exciting moment of the whole process. Once we got them on, we didn't want to take them off to keep working. Check out Jaime wearing her jeans while she irons and what the whole panel had to say about week three.

Kaylee's Ginger Jeans: Week 3

After week two, you may remember I was having some issues with the zipper attachment. After much investigation and pattern checking, I was never really able to figure out where I went wrong, but I proceeded by sewing the zipper as close to the correct location as I could and it worked out just fine. It definitely made my pants about 1/4” bigger at the hips, but I just fixed that when I was basting and fit testing.

Since I had run into some issues, I was running a bit behind everybody. What I learned from everybody else is that the pockets seem to sit a bit low on the butt for our taste. I held off top stitching my pockets on until after I had tried them on. I was very happy I waited too because I ended up raising the pockets up about 1 inch, or just a 1/4” below the yoke.

When I first stitched up my jeans at the recommended 5/8” seam and slipped them on I was bummed to find that they were very baggy on me. I think that I maybe should have made a size smaller. That combined with the fact that the hips were already bigger than they were supposed to be made for pretty ill-fitting pants. The great thing about making your own jeans is that you can keep making adjustments until they are exactly how you want them. I took them in 1/4” in the side seam and the inseam and tried them on again. Much better!

I did decide to go ahead and do some more fitting after that too. I took in the waist, knee area, and ankle in an additional 1/4” just on the side seam. It took out some of the bunching at the knee and they fit so much better. If you put them on and they don't look right, just keep adjusting until you are happy with them!

Sara's Ginger Jeans: Week 3

I started this week off by sewing my two leg backs together; I guess you could call that the center butt seam. I decided to just go ahead and sew it and serge the seam allowance and run my top stitching down the seam. I might take it in a bit at the top of that seam, but I probably won't because the fit is good enough. If you're not sure how the Ginger jeans will fit, I 100% recommend basting the center butt seam, inseam, and side seams at this point!

Next, I basted the inseam and the side seams together so that I could try my jeans on. This was the BEST PART so far! I have JEANS that I made ON MY BODY! This is the point where you can make any adjustments to the fit. Mine are pretty good. I decided to move my pockets up 3/4". To make sure that the top of the pockets ended up straight, I connected the two pocket placement dots on the back and drew a new line 3/4" higher and parallel to that line with end points directly above (perpendicular to) the original pocket placement dots. I ripped out all of my basting stitches and sewed my pockets on in their new location. Then, I sewed my inseams again using a regular stitch length and did the same for the side seams. I did try them on again at this point, partly because I want to wear them NOW, and partly to recheck the pocket placement and fit. I decided that they were fine and followed all of the top stitching and serging instructions.

Finally, it was waistband time! I assembled and pressed my waistband according to the given instructions, stay stitched my waist, and basted the waistband onto my jeans! I cut the biggest waistband since I dropped my rise, making the waist lower and thus wider, knowing that I would baste it together to figure out my final length. I matched up the center back notches and went from there. And, guess what?? I think they are going to be PERFECT! The rise is exactly what I had in mind!

It's taking all of my willpower to not just hurry up already and finish my jeans instead of waiting for next Friday to finish with everyone! But, I promised I would wait. Next week I'll have jeans to wear!!!

 Jaime's Ginger Jeans: Week 3

Week 3 of jeans! It is soo exciting you guys because we got to try them on and.... I love them.

Here is what happened. I cut out the size 8 which was too small for my hips so I went ahead and basted the jeans at a 1/2" seam allowance on the inseam and side seams instead of a 5/8" anticipating that they were going to be too tight. I tried them on. They fit pretty good! In fact, I decided to only do the 1/2" seam allowance on the outside seam and keep the inseam at the 5/8". The denim I'm using has 2% spandex so I know they're going to stretch out as I wear them. I plan on treating them like a good pair of selvedge denim jeans and not wash them very often and let them really form to my body so I want them tight.

The other change I had to make was the back pocket placement. Oh man! The pockets were way too low and, unfortunately, I had already top-stitched them on. There was a solid hour of seam ripping to take the jeans apart and remove the pockets.

I sewed them back on very close to the back yoke and sewed the jeans with a regular stitch. And then, just because I'm insane, I went ahead and serged my side seams. You guys...they are perfect. I am soo excited to sew the waistband on next week and then wear them every day!

Check back with us next week for our final sew-along week and finished jeans!