Jeans making has been in my plans since my first sewing life back in the 80s and 90s. I even got as far as buying two jeans patterns but of course, never got around to making them. Every time I saw a proud sewist showing off her Gingers or Dawns, I thought to myself I must make those jeans.

Finally, I decided I was going to do it. I had found Angela Kane’s YouTube channel and decided to make her jeans. She has women’s and men’s selvedge jeans and an excellent step by step video guide. So at the start of 2019, I cut out these two pairs of jeans.

My jeans were cut from unbleached raw stretch denim and I cut his pair in a traditional indigo colour denim.

Jeans seem daunting because there are a lot of pieces and a lot of processes and also there is the whole trousers fitting thing to address. All three of these factors contributed to them sliding into the WIP pile.

Add my usual reasons: travel, work, other projects and I just kept shunting them. Finally in spring last year I decided to get them sewn.

These are technically not my first jeans, I cloned a pair from a well-loved RTW pair a few years before but my fly closure was an abomination. This in fact was the main reason for my hesitation over these jeans. With the help of the video guide, I was able to tackle these jeans and get two pairs that I’m really happy with.

Gary’s jeans turned out brilliantly. I feel like I want to get some good hardware to make them look even more professionally made. They have rivets, my topstitching is satisfyingly good and the only thing they lack, I think is the leather tab on the back. The fit is not bad either. To be fair they are slightly roomy as we erred on the side of caution and they relax a bit too much in wear. Overall though we were both happy with the fit and how they look.

My jeans suffered a bit from an apparent weight gain while they lay cut out plus the inevitable jeans issues that my shape enjoys ie non standard crotch length and waist-to-hip ratio. I ended up with a gap at the back which I corrected by putting a pair of darts in the mid-yoke. There are also some drag lines on the back which I’ll investigate too. My next pair will be adjusted to fit better.

Everyone is always so pleased with themselves when they pass this major milestone and I was no different. I’m no longer afraid of fly front zips and I’m happier with my fitting knowledge as well.

Making these two pairs of jeans really felt like levelling up and my trousers game is really going to new heights.

Do you have a technique nemesis or have you conquered it? What was your final sewing frontier?

Thanks for dropping by,