The jeans are finally finished! Here come the pics:
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Well, now I know why some sewers shy away from jeans. They are a lot of work! I think it was worth it in the end, but I'm really in the mood for an instant gratification project now.
As I mentioned before, the pattern is Vogue 2812, which is rated "very easy." Well..it may be very easy for jeans - I haven't made another jeans pattern, so the jury's still out on that one. But I definitely wouldn't call it "very easy" overall. 
Overall, I'm satisfied with the results. They fit about as well as any RTW jeans I've owned, but I think I could do a bit more to improve the fit. I basically ended up completely redrawing the outseams 1.5"+ smaller on each side - this pattern really had a ton of ease! The pattern says they are straight legged, but they really have quite a bit of flare from the knee to the ankle as well as being very loose in the hip -- I cut this down from both the inseams and outseams to make it more of a boot cut. The waistband, however, fit me perfectly. I'm still scratching my head on that, but perhaps it is because the waistband is interfaced and doesn't stretch while the rest of the jeans stretch a bit since the denim I used had a fair amount of spandex. As far as other adjustments, I found I needed a sway back adjustment after I had already put everything together, so I just took a triangular piece out of the CB seam -- if/when I do this again I will do a proper adjustment, since the waistband does dip a bit lower there (but it is nicely masked by the beltloop). I also shortened the front crotch by 1" and probably could have taken a bit more there. I still have some wrinkling in the back thigh area, but I wasn't sure how to deal with that. It seems to be a fairly common area to have some wrinkles, so I feel ok about it for now but I would like to figure it out if I venture into jeans making again!
Questions, comments, and suggestions (especially with regard to fit) are much appreciated!
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Original Post from 10/1/07
Well, it's not a completed project yet, but I'm just so excited that they are actually starting to look like real jeans, I had to post something.
The pattern is Vogue 2812 - I am making view A with the narrower waistband.- Front
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- Semi-close up on the fly - the cause of much frustration.
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- Mock front pocket (it doesn't actually function)
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- Real back pocket - though I never use the back pockets anyway.
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I wish I had seen Sandra Betzina's tutorial on sewing a fly zipper before I had attempted the fly -- it would have made my life a lot easier! The pattern called for lots of unnecessary basting, plus had the topstitching ending too close to the end of the zipper. The topstitching, as a result, is less than perfect after redoing it 4 or 5 times. I was afraid if I redid it one more time my fabric might fall apart! I think this whole venture will have gotten me over my ridiculous fear of topstitching.
I basted and checked the fit a little while ago, and I think they have quite a lot of ease. I'm going to start by taking in 1" on each side seam and see where that gets me. I hope I'll have these finished in the next couple of days!
