Saturday, April 16, 2011

Jeans are done!

Yes it’s true! I’ve finally finished the Jalie jeans I began to make in the PR Blue Print to Blue Jeans with Jennifer Stern last November. They’ve actually been sitting for the last 3 months awaiting the final touches: button & buttonhole, rivets.

2011-04-16 12.48.34  2011-04-16 12.48.41

The Greist buttonholer that I got last week did a pretty good job of the buttonhole, but I had to do a bit of fiddling as it tended to jump around on the waistband and I had to rip out the first attempt (and this was after making half a dozen tests on the first/scrapped waistband). It turns out that the fabric needs to be of the same thickness on both sides of the buttonhole plate, otherwise it can’t get a firm hold.

The problem was that the waistband seam is much thicker than the top edge of the waistband. To compensate, I basted some folded denim scraps just on the top portion of the waistband to match the thickness of the waistband seam. That was better, but it still slipped a bit. Then I put strips of double-sided sticky foam tape along the top and bottom of where the buttonhole would be; this helped to literally stick the fabric to the bottom of the buttonholer, and so no more slippage. (I see now that it would have been a lot more helpful to include photos of this!)

For a first attempt, they’re wearable, but I think I’ll have to just wear them in the summer as they are a bit short!! During the muslin fittings and many adjustments, I took out quite a bit of fabric just under the butt, however I forgot to add it back to the lower leg…live and learn! LOL I’m definitely making these again, and a few more tweaks should do the trick.

Oh, here’s a close-up of the first pocket (the 2nd is a mirror image, and was a bit neater!)

Jeans back pocket

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