McCall's 5142

The heart-stoppingly cool jeans are finished!

And I am mostly happy with them.  I am still trying out jeans patterns, so this is McCall's 5142, the Palmer-Pletsch "Perfect Jeans" pattern.  I don't know about perfect, but I will give it a pretty darn good!  I have a few radiating lines from the front crotch, which don't make me totally happy.  I did scoop out the curve about 1/4 inch, which improved the situation there, but didn't completely eliminate it.  They are quite comfortable, though.  No binding or pinching.  These are made in non stretch denim, so the fit is fairly unforgiving.

From the side you can see that the fit through the hips looks good, but I have a few diagonal lines that go from hip to knee.

You can see them better from the back view.  I am wondering if I shouldn't have scooped a bit out of the back crotch curve as well to improve the fit back here.  I did take in 5/8 inch at center back starting at the waistline and tapering out to nothing at the beginning of the crotch curve.  Regardless of the wrinkles, these are very comfortable pretty much everywhere.  My biggest gripe for these jeans is that this view, which is a lower rise, has a straight waistband.  Despite my alteration to the back of the pant, the waistband gapes!!  I think a contoured waistband, which the other view (with the "Mom jeans" rise) has, would be better for this view as well.

Here is a better view of the awesome pockets.  I borrowed another cool detail from Mary Nanna and copied her back belt loop, which she copied from RTW.  I think it looks cool.  I realized after taking all these pictures that I totally forgot to apply the rivets!!  I think jeans really need rivets, so I'll be putting them on soon.  You'll see them again, I'm sure!  At least when I post all of the mini wardrobe pics!

So anyway, with regard to the search for the one true jean, I don't think this is it for me.  The things I like are the rise - not too low, not too high, and the shaping of the jean itself, particularly in the hips, thighs and back.  Things I don't like - The front pockets gape open just a little, the waistband would be better if it were contoured and the legs have no shape at all - they are completely straight.  Will I wear them?  Heck yeah!!  They may not be perfect, but they are a whole heck of a lot better than anything I've ever gotten in RTW.  I mean really, have you ever seen jeans for sale with EKG pockets?

I also have to give another shout out to Mary Nanna.  Not only have I blatantly copied so many cool details from jeans that she has made, she gave me several tips regarding this pattern that were very helpful as I was going along, particularly with regard to sizing.  I've gotten so accustomed to the ridiculous amount of ease that you typically find in McCall's patterns, that I generally cut a 10, despite the fact that I measure to a 14.  This pattern actually has a reasonable amount of ease.  I cut the 12, and am really glad that I did!  I also have to credit KnitMachineQueen for her timely post full of jeans sewing tips.  Was that ever helpful!