Red Jeans

Forever I have wanted red jeans. These were not the jeans I imagined when I ordered this fabric but I still love them!!!!!
I am a roller skater and as such clothing that has some stretch and is really close fitting is ideal for my sport. It means I can pop my protective gear over the top and not have fabric bunching up underneath knee pads and crash shorts. I had fully imagined this fabric being a pair of slim-fitting Ginger jeans. However, I made an error in not checking the stretch percentage of this fabric. I knew this denim was a stretch fabric, but it did not have enough stretch for the ginger jeans pattern, so I ended up having a rethink. In my mind, I was aiming to create some wide-leg cargo-style jeans, but I couldn’t decide on the style of patch pockets to use and just ended up making wide-legged jeans - LONG ones.

I often wear my jeans with my platform Doc Marten boots and they can feel a little short, so for this make, I went for super long trousers. I had ordered 2m of the denim as that is what I’d have needed for the Ginger jeans, but I very quickly realised that I was going to struggle to get wide, long trousers out of 2m, I had to employ a bit of creative thinking.

The pattern I had decided to use was the same culotte pattern I used for my last make - it was to hand and I knew it fit and I could just lengthen the pieces. However, I just couldn’t get the pattern pieces to fit side by side on the fabric as it was not quite wide enough and the length I had was too short to place them in a staggered manner, also I find this leaves you with a lot of leftover fabric! I decided that I could afford to narrow the pieces and folded out 1cm on all the leg pieces - losing a total of 4 cm width. I figured that as the fabric had some stretch, and 1.5cm seam allowances I could make this work and adjust the seams if necessary. I was right up to the selvedge edge on some pieces, but these are mostly hidden in the seams of by topstitching. After a lot of head scratching, pattern tetris and careful cutting out I had my pattern pieces all sorted. The jeans came together quickly and I used some cotton poplin for the pocket bags. I even had just enough fabric left to create two back pockets. As I often do when sewing jeans I set up both of my machines so that I can have the top stitching thread on my Bernina and construct the garment on my Pfaff. I find it saves time in the long run.

I am actually very pleased with how these have turned out, despite it being a different make to the one I planned. However at the moment, I do feel I am dressing like a small child in all the primary colours as I’ve worn them with my cropped blue hoodie. They are quite lightweight and I think as the weather warms I might end up wearing these a little more during the summer.