Burda jeans vol 2

When I made my polka dot jeans I knew I'd make that pattern again when I get my hands on some denim. Do you know that in Polish jeans means both a type of pants and type of fabric? Anyway, I got some dark blue denim at Spotlight some time ago and decided to sew pants in between my Granville shirts ;)

The main reason it took me couple of months to make this pattern again is the sizing and using fabrics with different properties. Since the polka dot fabric was really stretchy and my denim has minimal stretch I decided  to size up. They are still a bit tight but just give me a week or two - I've lost 6 kg since April so I think I will be able to wear them soon.

Unfortunately this denim is not the best quality. It is a bit thin and it can get damaged pretty easily! Unpicking stitches left marks on the fabric and I am not impressed about that. Once I realized that it's not what I wanted it to be I kind of lost my interest in making my jeans perfect. I just wanted to finish them! I have some issues with the trouser legs around my knees. There is some strange bagging and pulling probably because my full thighs and calves. I tried to google it but all the fitting advice for trousers refer to crotch area... The rest seems to be ok, at least for me.

My fly zip is much better than a previous one! Yay! Also the waistband has improved - I used proper waistband interfacing which helped a lot! It was impossible to use my buttonhole making foot so I improvised and used zig-zag stitch to make one myself. Not fully happy with the placement and the look of it but it's functional. Also this time I used proper "jeans" button. I finished the pocket edges with "Hug Snug" rayon tape - Kat gave me some to try it out. And while I didn't love it I think it gives me more options and I'll be getting some for myself sometime soon.

Now I just need to find some nice denim and do it all over again...

Is there an English name for this tiny pocket? In Poland it is sometimes referred as "kondomówka" which means condom pocket :P

 And here are some detail photos:

My belt loop placement is all weird but well - it's functional ;)

Hug Snug finish - not very even I admit. I need more practise!

Fun pocket piece

I made jeans!

2015 is going to be a year of pants I decided. After I made Antoinette pants I wanted to tackle something a bit harder. I was contemplating buying Ginger Jeans pattern because I keep seeing it everywhere and it seems to be working on different body shapes. Then I realized that the technical drawing is almost identical to Burda jean pattern (3/2014) I've seen it around on a few blogs and it seems like a good pattern to try.

It was a good choice. The pattern is well drafted and everything matched well. There are step by step instructions that are actually quite useful. It would be great if that was the standard for Burda!
I used bengaline with quite a lot of stretch that was not easy to work with but a lot easier than I expected to be honest! I had my walking feet on the whole time and used fresh needle for stretch fabrics. There is a little bit of puckering on the back yoke but not when I wear it.

Regarding fit I don't really know what to say... I cut size 42 with a little bit of extra width in the calves area. They are bit loose in the waist. I was hoping I can get away with making belt loops but I do have to add them sooner rather than later. It would be better if I took the waistband in to be honest but that requires quite a bit of work and those jeans were supposed to be a muslin so I don't think I will. I reckon that the stretch of the fabric is concealing fitting issues so it will be interesting to make them again in less stretchy denim.

I need to find some tutorials on fly-zip and waistband sewing. As you can see on the photos I messed up a bit. My sewing machine refused to make a button hole so I sewn in hook and bar closure. The waistband is not interfaced enough for that so it doesn't look that great :/ Just for fun I decided to use a piece of rayon for the pockets. I like it a lot!

I am working on quite a few things at the moment but I will be making those again in foreseeable future. I hope to make this pattern my TNT because everyone needs good fitting jeans, right? Next time I'll make it in denim and make the waistband piece a bit wider. And of course I'll read more about fly-zips ;)

Let's make pants and meet Antonia!!!

Hello there :)

I'm back and I have a new baby to take photos for the blog. I'm so happy about my new camera but it will take me a while to learn how to use it properly I guess. I hope that the photos for the blog will  be nicer from now on but I can't really promise. Anyway let's catch up with my sewing now.

One of my sewing goals for this year was to venture into pants making. Really scary, right? It's not even that making them is scary because technically it's not that hard to make them. The hard part is fitting them! Having that in mind my first pants are made using Antoinette pants pattern from Style Arc. It's my first and quite possible the last pattern from that company. I bought a PDF pattern on Etsy and they come in 3 sizes. I'm actually between 14 and 16 so I had to decide between sizes 10-12-14 and 16-18-20 pack... I chose to go for size 16. Patterns are not nested which means you can only print which means it's really hard to grade if needed! The seam allowances included are 1 cm and I prefer 1,5 cm so I added extra 5 mm along the edges. Instructions are not really that great but still better than Burda ones ;)

I decided to use beautiful houndstooth cotton sateen bought at the Fabric Warehouse sale last year. Funny thing is that in Polish houndstooth is called 'hen's feet'! The fabric was very pleasant to work with. I started with the pockets and I must say they are awesome - very big and they hold my phone and keys and a lipstick or two or ten... Seriously, one doesn't need a handbag wearing those pants!*

I skipped sewing the darts in the back as one of first steps as I suspected I'd need to change the depth of them to make the pants fit. After sewing in the zip and basting stitches together I tried them on and I was swimming in them! I basted the back darts, skimmed 1-1,5 cm from side and front seams... still to big. I made the darts bigger, skimmed a little bit more from the front seam, unpicked the zip, got rid of extra cm there, put the sip in again... It was much better. In total I got rid of about 10-12 cm (it could be more, I got lost in my calculations!) I had to change the waistband facings to fit. I finished them off with bias tape just for fun. I also under-stitched the facings and to keep them in place even more I hand-stitched them to the pants themselves under the big pleats and to the side seam allowances. Fitting the crotch area was another struggle and I'm not fully happy with the results but it's much better than it was originally. The pattern calls for soft falling fabric such as rayon or silk and I used stiffer fabric. I suspect using softer fabric would solve some of my fitting issues. One more note - those pants are SHORT! I'm 1,60m with rather short legs so I always have to shorten RTW clothes and chop off some length off. I didn't have to alter anything here!

I learnt a few things making those pants:

• My bum is flat and my belly full causing the waistline to rise up in the back and not quite hit the natural waistline in the front
• Sewing with bigger seam allowance in the crotch area makes pants bigger ;)
• After spending an hour looking at my backside I couldn't tell any more what the right fit was! I had to ask my boyfriend too look at my butt and tell me what he thought.

As you can see they are still big - too much fabric pretty much everywhere! It's not going to stop me wearing them in public though! I decided that it's time to be a bit braver with my clothes. Those pants are kind of ok with slim-fitting black tops as I don't really think other colours are going to look good with them. Anyway I wore them around a few times and no one was pointing at me. which I took as a good sign. I'm also not giving up on the pattern. I made some changes and already cut the fabric for pair number two and I'll try to make them soon. We will see how it goes!

* provided you don't carry a lot in your handbag ;)