J Stern Designs Jeans DONE! The big Reveal!

The hem.(step 10)

The shank button and buttonhole. (step 9)

25 years after I learned to sew....I made my first pair of jeans (my first pair of pants ever with a fly front!) I finished steps 9 and 10 at 10:15am this morning and wore them all day!  They did not fall apart!!

I'm crashing from the adrenline rush of sewing for 21 hours in 4 days, so here are all of the glorious, unedited pix, messy sewing room included.

Enjoy!!!

Without the belt:
 


Bathroom pix without the belt:




With the belt:


Out in public:


With my new candy apple red shoes:

And some pix from yesterday's post (just so the main stuff is all in one post):
The back:
 
And the inside with my green and white floral pockets (before the button and buttonhole were done):


More pix are in this album.

Thank you for all the encouragement y'all left for me in the comments.  I love reading your sweet comments!

Thank you to Christine who gifted me the jeans fabric.

And a HUGE thank you to Jennifer Stern for teaching her jeans class on PatternReview.com, and for teaching the Professional Jeans Construction class at the ASE. I think I asked for the most help out of my fellow classmates  on Pattern Review and Jen was SO gracious with her time and sewing knowledge.

I want to refine the fit a bit more (they are a little loose without a belt and I'd like to refine the front crotch some more) and make some cords and velveteen pants from this pattern.  I'd also like to try the Jalie pattern for stretch jeans and the Sewaholic trouser pattern (Sewaholic makes patterns for pear shaped women like me!)   And I'd like to finally make the pants pattern that was adjusted for me in Austin last year, but never made because I was afraid of the fly front.  So yes, L, I am hooked on pants!   But there is a McCall's dress calling my name....

What a great sewcation!   Be well!

Jeans hour 18 step 8 completed.

Here I am at hour 18 with the jeans.

I'm now up to step 9 out of 10.  Just button, buttonhole and hem to go!


Note to self: pay better attention to the cutting diagram and which way the fabric is facing for waistband and coin pocket(up or down).
Also, keep your fingers out of the way while hammering thick seams.

interior:
 
back:

front:

When the belt loops were all lined up and ready to go:

Could tomorrow be the final reveal of what they actually look like ON ME????
Stay tuned!!!

On step 6/7 in the 12th hour?

Here are my back pockets sewn on!!  yay!  I used a twin jeans needle to stitch that curve...the design is copied from a pair of Eddie Bauer jeans I own.

Thanks again for your cheerleading support, I really appreciate it!

Here are some scenes from day 2 of the jeans:

I got stuck thinking about pocket ideas!  Designers put their name all over their clothes, right?  So why shouldn't I?   One idea I had was to have my first name on one pocket, my middle name on the other. But Dana has too many curvy letters for me to do free form on my sewing machine (I don't have an embroidery machine) and I was also thinking it might make me look a bit childish... however the idea is still in my brain so I think my next pair *will* have my name on the pockets!  I might even embroider it by hand....

 It really reminds me of a childhood memory--going to Disney World and getting the white sailor hat embroidered with my name on it--in thick jean topstitching thread like this!

I was a little worried when I saw how much larger the back of the jeans are compared to the front!

but they seem to be fitting well so far.
I used a lot of new-to-me (and not so new) tools.

from top-ish to bottom:

• Angela Wolf clapper.  Bonnie bought it at the ASE but got home and realized she already had a clapper.  She sold it to me, yay!  Not that I really know what I'm doing with it.  From what I've read, you hit a seam with steam and then press the clapper on top to get a really nice finish? Yes?  No?
• Wonder Tape:  this holds a lot of stuff in place while sewing--like the back pockets!  I'd never heard of it til Jennifer Stern's class at the ASE.  It is pretty wonderful.
• Jeans topstitching thread:  I'm in love.
• tailor's chalk in several colors:  bought these at the ASE.  SO much better than the chalk at Joann's b/c it's larger, you can hold it easily, it has a sharper edge and more colors!
• Edgestitching foot:  In Jennifer's videos she shows how to use an edgestitching foot.  I had never used one til the ASE but it is very useful for getting those 1/8 inch perfect topstitching seams (well  as close to perfect as I can get for now!).  I bought an assortment of feet this past summer off ebay and the topstitching foot happened to be one of those feet!
• Tracing wheel:  honestly have not used one of these for a while but used it for tracing the pattern onto the pockets
• Jeans twin needle:  To make that curve on the back pocket
• Hammer: to hammer thick seams so they go through the sewing machine easier.  Truly works and is fun to hammer too!

So I'm up to steps 6 and 7...of 10 in Jennifer's pattern.  I'm hoping to finish these tomorrow so I can wear them to lunch with my great aunt on Tuesday!  Yay for having the week off--this is a great start to my vacay!

p.s. to answer questions:
velosewer--Jennifer mentioned that having two machines makes the jeans construction faster, but I don't have a second machine, yet.  (Those italics are foreshadowing...)

L--Yes!  I want to sew a bunch of velveteen jeans and corduroy jeans.  

LinB: You've got me thinking about that black/green/white floral and some cigarette pants!

Be well!!

On step 3 in the 7th hour.

Thank you for all your encouragement with the jeans!

I have spent about 7 hours on the jeans today.
I'm haven't even completed step 3 of the 10 steps of the J Stern Designs jeans pattern, but I feel like I'm half way done.  Maybe I'm naive.


Done:

• front pockets
• zipper
• CF seam
• back yoke
• CB seam

To do:

• topstitch CB seam
• back pockets
• inseam & side seams
• waistband
• buttonhole
• shank button
• hem

Impressions:

• this is fun!
• jeans topstitching thread is amazing.
• switching back and forth between topstitching thread and regular thread isn't as annoying as I thought it would be.
•  sometimes my machine sounds like it's groaning.

Since I have all this week off, and the class closes Monday, I intend to finish these tmw.   I hope so!!!

Be well!

Can you feel the anticipation?

Can you feel the anticipation?
Can you?

Will they be amazing?



Will they be awful?

Will they be awfully amazing?

Or amazingly awful?

The online jeans class ends this Sunday.

Let's see how I do!
Be well!

A domestic Sunday

Hey, my parents got their electricity back yesterday at 12:20pm!  12 days without power from the grid.  They are tough stock.  A crew from Arkansas helped them out--I love all these crews coming from out of state to help us (the state of NJ) get back on our feet again--thank you!!

Ok, it felt like a very domestic Sunday.

A little cooking...

Chicken rice and artichoke soup, with too much Parmesan cheese thrown on top...

A little baking....

Nestle Toll House chocolate chip with walnut cookies from scratch for the Thanksgiving Potluck at work tmw.  My house smells SO good!

A little sewing....
version #6 of the jeans muslin (next time it will be the real deal....are you ready???  Am I???)


With a fisheye dart to take out excess length at the side seam that was creating unflattering waviness in the hip area (I actually had to make this dart bigger!):


And  a quick gratification project, this lovely pair of UW...
fabric: Joann's
elastic: either Daytona or Pacific Trim, NYC




iron on patch:  Hobby Lobby (recently opened in NJ)



And finally, a little snow with the ginkos...

Be well!!  Good night!

Jeans and pillowcases....and a question

Question:  How many iterations did it take you to get your jeans muslin to where you wanted it to be???
 
The jeans muslin is a big project for me, so I needed a little instant gratification sewing this weekend.  I also needed another pillowcase for this odd-sized pillow I bought this summer.   Standard pillowcases are too large for it.   I had made one pillowcase for it earlier this year, but wanted to add to the rotation.


Of course I added piping:

This one is a sweet rose pillowcase:

with pink piping of course:

I even serged the inside edges, which is fun now that my serger is no longer scary:

Also worked on the jeans muslin a lot this weekend. Here I am at interation #3, working on adding darts for my swayback:


I made another sample front like we did at the ASE. I made my first-ever coin pockets and wanted practice so I added two (I know in real life, there's only one coin pocket).  One coin pocket is at a jaunty angle, the other is straight up and down....

This is my second ever fly front zip insertion, hurrah!

Here's iteration #4 of my jeans muslin front:
 
back:


If you want to see the pix of the muslin on me, you'll have to pay for the class on PatternReview.com. Those pix, even at iteration #4, are still not going to see the light of day.  The jeans are getting better--before the waistband wasn't anywhere near my body and now it is!  and actually the back looks  pretty decent overall.  But the front and front sides are a mess...

So please let me know the answer to the question at the start of this post.  :)

Sandy update:  so many in NJ are still without power, including several friends and my parents.  With a high of 29F tonight I am really hoping the power is restored to all very soon!

Be well!