Jalie jeans - finally something to show

It has been awhile since I sewed some jeans. Not counting some shorts made with the same pattern, I haven't made jeans since June 2011. It has also been a long time since I used my fabulous blue HG Palmer Princess sewing machine, aquired for the sole purpose of sewing through the thick layers of denim. So long that I had forgotten how to thread the thing and spent a good hour trying to get it to sew nice. Turned out I was threading it fine, but had put the needle in the wrong way.

 

This time around, I made a few changes. First, I straighted the leg. I just folded out the flare from the knees down. The other change was using a curved waistband and a contrast fabric for the inner waistband to reduce bulk. I used a waistband from a Burda pattern - I measured the flat pattern at the stitch line and only had to reduce 1cm from the centre back to fit correctly.

I have a heap of back pockets saved on my computer and this one looked the easiest. I made a template on some paper first and used a plate to make the curved lines. Then I just drew the lines on the pockets with chalk. I did forgot to edgestitch the top of the pocket before I sewed it onto the jeans.

When I make myself another pair, I plan to make the seam allowances wider. The only time I had trouble with the princess was when sewing through just 1 layer of denim (when topstitching the second row, it was just outside of the seam allowance and thus 1 layer only). The thread would break over and over. Yet it never broke at any other stage. This machine lives for sewing through layers. The most layers it achieved was when sewing on the belt loops. The loops are 3 layers, but then they are folded over so that is 6. Add the 4 layers of the waistband with the seam. that is 10 laters of fabric. The jeans only just fit under the presser foot too.

 

Work has been a lot more stressful than I could have imagined. Weekends have been usy and I have spent too much time surfing the net, looking at everyone's wonderful projects and feeling inadequate with my creative output. I did not feel like blogging about my simple knit fabric projects which were staggeringly easy but all I could manage.

 

After spending the first couple of days of my break feeling down in the dumps, I decided to do what I love, even if it not the latest pattern or fabric. I love sewing, I dress for comfort and this is my chance to get out of the rut I am in. I finished these jeans and another dress and have taken photos and I am now feeling very enthused, relaxed and refreshed.