Yes, I’ve finally finished Jamie! My Jeans in June & July was rudely interrupted by a holidays – and life.

My daughter has nicknamed these the ‘Milky Way Jeans’ due to the slightly sparkle to the fabric. Photographs are not brilliant sorry – taken by sprinting out the back before the afternoon light faded and rain set in. Blurgh – hate winter.

Now these are the skinny-jeans-that-ain’t .

These simply do not cling to my legs in a skinny manner which seems odd as the hips are fine – I need to alter the pattern – for my legs and my waist which is much smaller in comparison to my hips/junk trunk. Some people refer to this as ‘swayback’ I much prefer ‘junk trunk’.

Me – trying to figure out whether I’ve been blessed with skinny thighs or child-bearing hips…

PATTERN THOUGHTS

While I’m not crushing on this make on me (at all) – I do like the pattern.

I love the top-stitched seam up the front. I used a grey top-stitching thread (increasing the stitch length to 3) to highlight the slight sparkle in the fabric.

I do like the angled front pockets & contrast trim (I used the reverse of the fabric). I love how the inner front pockets are attached to the seams and hence never ride up. Tricky design feature.

Named Patterns: Jamie Jeans. Front view

I sewed as many seams as I could before changing over my thread to top stitch the seams – otherwise I think you could go crackers.

The instructions are OK but I think if you are relatively inexperienced, especially at fly fronts, you might freak out a little. If you are attempting these and never sewn a fly front – check out Grainline’s tutorial – it’s excellent!

You need to know which side (right or left) of the front centre pieces to trim for the fly front – the pattern does not make this clear – it just directs you to cut one of each. I cut them out the same (with the full fly flap thingie – I’m a technical gal) and then adapted the other side as I sewed the fly front – it’s a simple matter of trimming.

When you join the legs at the centre seam, the instructions tell you to offset one of the sides slightly so you can sew a ‘jeans seam’. Brilliant but having sewn on the back pockets you run the risk of them being slightly ‘off centre’ relative to the back seam. My pockets were slightly off everywhere – which I noticed after I sewed the legs together. Doh! I sensed an impending disaster so elected to not totally destroy myself on these.

Named Patterns: Jamie Jeans. Back view.
Just way too baggy through the legs.

MY MAKE

These are by no means a stellar sewing affair. Overall I’m pleased – with the exception of the obvious fit disaster and the back pockets being slightly skewiff – meaning I’m unlikely to actually ever wear these. I’m a bit of a jeans junkie so I’m rather picky when it comes to my denim threads – never about brand but about always look & fit. The fabric is quite stiff and I suspect never going to succumb to ‘old beloved comfy status’ softness – very important jeans feature in my little world.

I’m pretty chuffed with my top stitching and overall I don’t think they look too homemade.

Named Patterns: Jamie Jeans. Side view

Fabric: this is a sparkly black denim from Spotlight – costing me about $22.50 for the jeans. So it wasn’t an expensive experiment. I think the fit will never been quite ‘right’ in this fabric. It’s not soft and pliable, the fabric just doesn’t soften up with washing – hence I doubt you could make a nice snug pair of skinnies. I do have some Bettina Liano denim in the stash for my dream jeans…

SIMPLE JEANS SEWING ADVICE

When sewing jeans – wear a pair. Or at least have a RTW pair at hand – I found this enormously helpful.

Named Patterns: Jamie Jeans.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

I’ve been sewing my jeans on my cheap & cheerful Singer Heavy Duty Machine. While it doesn’t have the finesse of my beloved Bernina – it’s a blast to sew on. It’s heavy (funny that) and ploughs through most things. It’s got this delicious little hum and is rather like the mongrel dog you can’t help but like, despite it’s lack of decorum and looks.

WHAT’S NEXT JEANWISE?

hmmmmm, I’m not sure… do I rush a pair of Angela Wolf jeans or take my time over the next month or so? I’ve checked out the Wolf pattern and am really impressed by the presentation and detail. Loads of resources and the pairs I have seen make up look great. Love bootcut jeans – so classic.

I’m also rather obsessed with Jess Jeans by Iconic Patterns, while labelled ‘skinny’ these hug the thighs and then flare out ever so slightly – which I think is much more flattering. I stumble at the button fly front – I will need to convert that which is easy enough.

I’m also massively impressed by the Jalie Jeans made up by Chris… I’ve got this pattern – won on the giveaway from the ever-lovely Vicki-Kate ages ago.

I’m kinda desperate for a high-waisted denim pencil skirt (very purple person just posted exactly that I’ve been planning to make! I love her blog – she’s a great sewist) – which I know doesn’t really fall into the Jeans in June & July category but it’s calling my name hard…

LIFE

Somewhere along the line in the last few weeks, I’ve parted company with several kilograms. I’m weighing in at a not-so-hefty 48 kilograms. Don’t freak out. I’m short and slight – usually weighing in around 50 kilograms (except for when I was 9 months pregnant and I cracked 58 kilograms – I went on to have a nine pound baby). I lost my appetite and I started running/exercising more (it clears my head which is rather a mess some days). I think I will return to my weights class which I so loved until I put my back/neck/shoulder out so significantly at the beginning of this year. It wasn’t just the back injury that put me off. I became rather perturbed by the biceps that popped out of my arms when I put my hair up – and my runty shoulders getting ever bigger. However those classes made me happy in a weird way so I’m going back.

Life can be complicated and difficult. No doubt compounded by rarely sitting down on my typical weekdays until 9pm. I’ve found it difficult to write, read or think. I’ve felt ‘blue’ (great for denim not so great for life). It’s created a sense of inertia that has been so very difficult to fight. However… I know that when I do write that I do feel better & more ‘me’ whoever that is – so I will blog more. In fact I have many things to blog, they have been sitting there for months.

COMING UP NEXT

A giveaway! Yes another one. Watch this space…

Me… taken from ELH’s height… I’m 14 inches smaller than him…. yes he’s tall…