honestly, I don’t ever encourage T to pose with me, he just does it all on his own.
I’ve made some new jeans, and the overly wide-legged-ness of them is so funky and awesome … it’s silly but I am really feeling like this sort of thing at the moment! I’ve been working on these for several weeks now … taking my time to get the fit just right and exactly how I wanted them. It was fun to work slowly on something that I really wanted. They are super comfortable and easy to wear, almost like a tracksuit, only not. Way better.
I used McCalls 8206 as a starting point. The size chart put me at about size 14, which surprised me a bit. I’m traditionally a 10 in McCalls patterns, but anyway I went ahead and cut out the size 14, keeping the extra paper pattern bits of the other sizes that got cut off just in case the size wasn’t right after all. I basted the legs together, and oh boy, indeed the size 14 was absolutely huge on me. I’m not sure why the size chart was so completely out of whack but I could literally pull them down without having to open the fly basting stitches at all! I ended up having to reduce the waist to the size 10 after all, and shaved the extra width off the leg pieces down the side seams, dwindling them down so they’re back to a size 14 by about knee level. I think I didn’t bother to reduce the size of the pockets though, so they do look a bit bigger on the jeans than they should. But that’s quite fine with me; I love oversized pockets too!
The waistband is curved, which always makes for a nice fit on jeans. However there is no fly shield… and I’d used a jeans zip so there is that slight scratchiness against your tummy skin on the inside. But the jeans are really so baggy I don’t think it’s going to be an issue.
For the waistband lining and pocket flap linings, I used a gorgeous linen gingham, leftover from this dress I made late last year… I’d bought it in Japan during our 2019 holiday and it’s so lovely. I really like how it picks up on the orange topstitching thread, only of course no one can see it but me! I splurged and put one of my eponymous labels in them too…
The topstitching thread is two slightly different shades of orange, to explain; the waistband and belt loop topstitching is a brighter orange than the remainder of the jeans. Actually, now they’re finished I realise you can hardly see the difference so I’m not sure why I was worried about it, but honestly on the spools the colour was noticeably different!
btw, a hand stitched buttonhole, haha. Seems like a weird choice for a pair of jeans but my machine-stitched version just looked a bit flimsy and wholly unsatisfactory!
The fabric is a slightly stretchy, very dark midnight-navy denim, originally from Fabulous Fabrics, and all haberdashery was also sourced from Le Stash. But I do confess to having to buy the pattern new! I searched and searched my pattern stash and decided to splurge on a new pattern when I couldn’t really find anything that ticked all the boxes of my vision ie. wide legs, small waist, lots of pockets including cargo, fitted at the waist but with a flat appearance and NO PLEATS OR DARTS, and a below the waist rise…. I’m very happy I got this one though, because I really do love it and plan to make it again someday, just the correct size next time! I would like to make this in a lighter weight cotton drill, like maybe white, for a summery sailor look… or maybe a camo print. But in the meantime I’m going to try my best to carry off the “cool” vibe of these very trendy jeans!
worn throughout with one of my white Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co Booragoon tops
is this my signature pose? I don’t why I feel compelled to do whenever I’m taking pictures of my clothes… I feel a bit sad I didn’t get an out-in-the-wild picture yet but I’ll come back and post one when it happens…
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