Blue Jeans: First Attempt

This past week I worked on Jalie 2908, the women's stretch jeans pattern that has been so popular on PR (if you filter for the pattern number, there are more than 50 reviews).


Because I have such a difficult time fitting pants, I decided that I would start with an unaltered pattern, simply cutting to the size indicated by my measurements, tracing a size "Z." I wanted to start with a "blank slate" rather than just blindly making alterations given that I don't really know how Jalies generally fit, what their ease typically is like, etc. Well, I'll tell you, they suuuure don't fit like the "Big 4!" Talk about limited ease!

Even though this was a muslin, I had never before made a pair of jeans, so I followed the instructions word-for-word...so that even if the muslin was unwearable I would have an opportunity to practice all the topstitching and other aspects of construction.

I am very happy with how these went together, the instructions were exceptional. To construct the pants, I actually had three machines set up. The serger was threaded with white for finishing seams. The 401 was threaded with navy for constructions, and the 503 was threaded with two spools of beige thread for the topstitching. This worked out very well, rather than having to rethread machines as needed.


I wasn't really sure what to do with the back pockets, so I just made a grid with straight lines up and down the pocket:


For the pocket lining, I used leftover cotton madras from a shirt I made a few weeks ago:


The denim was a mid-weight denim with 3% lycra purchased at Jackman's Fabrics here in St. Louis. They have a limited ammount of garment fabrics (mainly, they sell quilting and upholstery fabrics) but what they do have is generally very high quality.

However, I suspect that my denim did not have the stretch that was intended for these jeans....or maybe I'm just a fatty, either explanation is equally reasonable! Anyway, on to the photos. I have not yet hemmed the jeans, I want to run them through the laundry one more time before I hem them.

Here are the pants from the front:


And here they are from the back:


As you can see, there are some horizontal pulls across the back leg, the legs are too narrow and I will change that in subsequent versions. However, the front fits fairly well. These are a bit too tight to be comfortable, but that doesn't mean I won't keep them...I have lost 10 pounds since the last time I posted photos of myself and fully intend to lose 30 more. I think another 10 pounds and these pants will fit fairly well. So, they will be set aside for later.

In the meantime, I still need some jeans! So this week I think I will make some alterations to this pattern and make another version. First, I will raise the back waist by adding a wedge to the back seam. I will also widen the legs throughout the thigh, as well as the hip. The waist, however, fits fine and will remain as-is. Essentially, I need to add more room for my bottom, so will do most of the alterations to the back pattern piece.

Hopefully, I will have a chance to get to these this week with another length of denim with 3% lycra that I have from Fashion Fabric Club. This will be quite the adventure, because I normally have to make a ton of alterations to make pants hang without various odd wrinkles. However, you can't do that with jeans, especially stretch jeans, because they have zero ease means that wrinkles are just a fact of life.

While the jeans are tighter than I would wear, there are some things that they have going for them, mainly I don't have a wedgie, I don't have those sideways creases across my lap, and I really like the shape of the leg. If I can add some more room for a full bottom and full thighs without changing those aspects, this pattern really has the potential to be a winner.