Jalie 2908 jeans

This month I've been toiling away behind the scenes on my muslin for the Craftsy pants fitting class. After 3 attempts, I still felt like I was sitting at square one. So frustrated! So naturally, I decided to make a pair of jeans. That makes sense, right?

Are they perfect? No. I didn't even tissue fit them. I just wanted to sew.

But are they wearable? You betcha! And I needed some basic jeans, so I will wear them, imperfections and all. As an aside, I apologize for the picture quality. The DSLR isn't available to me at the moment and the lighting was too wacky for my iPhone. It's snowing and overcast today.

The pattern is Jalie 2908, which I made before here. That pair is no longer in my wardrobe for several reasons, but the primary reason is that the low rise just wasn't working for me anymore. Too much tummy fluff - it needs to be reigned in! This time I went up a size (sigh) and used the mid-rise view.

Over the years, I've learned that there are a few alterations that I always need on commercially drafted pants, so I incorporated those changes here. I added an inch to the height of the rise and scooped out the back crotch curve, to allow for gravity's effect on my assets. I also pinched about 1/2 inch out of the back waist to remove the gapping that always happens back there.

Since I made these just for the fun of it, I went a little crazy and made the back pockets a bit wild. I basically just doodled with my sewing machine, so they don't match at all. I used pink upholstery thread for most of the topstitching, except for the "wings" on my pockets, which are wool Aurifil in a cream color.

The fabric is a stretch denim left over from this skirt. It really has a bit more stretch than I would generally use for jeans, but I was stashbusting and unsure how these would turn out anyway. I think they're going to be fine. Since they are a bit snug, the extra stretch is appreciated. For an on a whim project, I'm fairly pleased with these. Now what next? I'm feeling a little sluggish in the mojo department at the moment, so we'll see...