So let’s take a look at the second pair of jeans that I made. Yes, I made two jeans at the same time! Can I recommend it? Well, only if you have great mental stamina. But on the upside, I had plenty of opportunities to practise my jeans making skills.
I used my trusted Burdastyle Anita pattern, but as I mentioned in the post about the first pair, they ended up a tad bit too tight in the waist since my tummy is apparently expanding. Especially this pair which is made of a firmer denim than the first pair. Luckily they seem to release a bit with wear, but currently, I can only comfortably wear this pair during certain parts of my monthly cycle. That kinda sucks, but I have zero motivation to watch my food intake at the moment. Hopefully, spring and training for my upcoming half-marathon in May of next year will help with that.
The fabric is overstock from the Dutch denim brand G-Star Raw. I got the last bit, and of course, it turned out to be too little! So I had to be thrifty and used fabric from an old shirt to line the waistband. And I think it turned out quite well!
If you are curious about my waistband techniques, there will be a video tutorial up on my Patreon page next week (and I’ve also started a very personal, Patreon only, sewing podcast, which was a bit nervous to record, but now it’s up!).
While it can be kinda nervewracking, I also love topstitching on jeans since it’s such a visually strong element. By the way, I’ve done a separate post about my best techniques and tools for topstitching on denim.
I struggled a bit with the bar tacks around the zipper area. I got the advice to increase the stitch length, which I did on the belt loops and that worked much better.
The belt loops are stitched using the coverstitch machine as they do it in the garment industry. A tutorial for that technique will be in my upcoming book about coverstitching.
Side view: I’m very happy with the fit!
Apart from the above-mentioned hurdles, I’m very proud of my jeans and cannot see myself ever resorting to RTW jeans again, now that I have a well fitting pattern. That said, I will add more width around the tummy area next time 🙂
