Look look look! I made jeans!
Real ones this time, with a useable front fly zipper and everything, unlike the last time… I don’t wear those anymore.
These are the Ginger Jeans from Closet Case Files.
And they’re terra cotta colored.
What else is nearly that color?
Iron Man is.
Okay, I know I’m stretching. Like mad. But Joann’s didn’t have denim in a bright red or bright yellow. So…
Terra cotta it was!
And if I’m being honest, I probably wouldn’t wear bright red pants anyway…
I was using these as a muslin, since I had bought very good quality denim that I was afraid to cut into. And I did learn a few things from the muslin. Including how bad VPL can look…but here’s the more sewing related ones.
Firstly, the high waisted-ness of these is great, except that I’m going to need to reduce the height a bit. Because its over my bellybutton (otherwise known as pivot point level on my body) I can’t bend enough to sit on the floor. What do you think I did a lot of during the first week of wearing? Lots of floor sitting…
This summer, I also gained a lot of bellyfat, so on one hand the tummy-stay front pocket was a lovely help, but that combined with the high waisted bit means that I was not terribly comfortable bending all the way over to pick things off the floor when I was sitting in a chair… And looking at the pictures of the back, I’m not convinced that its fitting right there… I’ll need to look at that further when I fix up the pattern, but it could just be a back pockets problem.
There were tons and tons of wrinkles at the back of the knees, so I utilized a design feature from my favorite trousers: a curved “dart” of sorts in the back leg that took a few wrinkles away. Not all, and perhaps not many, but enough. I like this, but if my next pair are tighter it might not be required.
I also need to shorten the legs. One thing about being short, I do get to save inches of fabric, which is great. I cut these off the bottom, and I did it in a rush, so I don’t quite remember how much but it was at minimum 4 inches… I may have cut a bit too much, but it’s a muslin, right?
Then I’m debating whether or not to take these in more. All of my non-skinny jeans recently broke (one with a hole and one with a zipper), so I’ve been craving not-super-skinny jean options, but all the wrinkles around the legs make me a bit sad. So do I give in to the style, or do I deal with the wrinkles?
But my favorite thing ever about these jeans is really the back pocket.
(Iron Man theme/song intensifies!) But really, I’m truly proud of these jeans, and I can’t wait to make the adjustments and cut my expensive denim!