Waste Not Want Not Jeans

 

 

I love an upcycled project. and wearables ones are the best. Back in late August my son decided that he was getting rid of a couple of pairs of jeans. Before he threw them in the bin, I rescued them and examined the quality of the denim. The button area on the waistbands had gone and the zips were damaged. but all in all the fabric was in decent condition.

I carefully unpicked and took them apart. I intended to reuse as much of the fabric as I could.  One of the waistbands was long enough for me to use of I cut away the damaged section. I reused the pockets and the belt loops.

The legs were disassembled from the inside, leaving the outer seams in tact. I used these leg sections to cut the front and back legs from.

 

I had to piece fabric to have enough for some of the smaller sections -such as the yoke and I added length to the legs in the same manner.

The denim was a stretch fabric and perfect quality for the Ginger Jeans from Closet Core Patterns. Having made these a few times before The construction was very quick and I did all the top stitching in regular thread, which meant no swapping of machines or thread on this one.

 

The pocket bags are made from some Superman fabric that my hubby had for a project earlier in the year. I know the photos aren't great. The light wasn't good when I was taking them and my phone is old!!!!

 

These have already been worn several times and I have made a small win in the zero waste fashion stakes. Everything used was from my stash or was off cuts. I needed new jeans and here we are.

Ginger Jeans take 3

I am growing to love this pattern the more I make it. This is the 3rd version of this one and I don't think I've ever sewn such stretchy denim. I was gifted this fabric my Minerva in exchange for a review as part of their brand ambassador program. I have shared my make on their site and you can read it here.

A few weeks ago I was cleaning the bathroom and I used some bleach spray, which I managed to get onto my black skinny jeans. So it was time to get making and create a new pair.

As usual I followed the online sewalong, which is super useful. If you are planning to make a pair of jeans - whatever the pattern - I can highly recommend the Closet Core Pattern sewalong. It will take you through construction techniques and give advice on fitting and adapting the pattern to suit you.

As I was using the stretchiest denim, I ended up taking in the seams quite a bit. I went with the high waist and skinny leg version and hope that these will make fab skate jeans and they are almost as stretchy and comfy as a pair of leggings, truly Jeggings.

I really love these and I think they'll probably get as much use as my last pair (which are worn several days per week).

Bling Bling

A while ago I had the opportunity to review some sequin fabric for Minerva. I have never sewn with sequin fabric before and I'm not sure it's an experience I want to repeat often. Don't get me wrong - the fabric is lovely, but it was very hard on my machine needles - I broke loads.

I used this fabric to try out some ideas I had. I fancied a cropped top and jacket. I lined the top with some lovely stretch cotton from 1st for fabrics. and I also paired the top and jacket with a pencil skirt and some slim cropped trousers - both of which were made from the same stretch cotton.

I used Closet Case Ginger Jeans pattern for the trousers and ended up over fitting and almost ditched them, but then I hate waste so I re did the side seams and inseams and they are a perfect - if very close fit.

The skirt is the pencil skirt from Gertie's new book for better sewing - I've made this a few times as it fits my waist to hip ratio well. Due to the stretch of the fabric, I did take this in quite a bit.

I think I made the top just a little too short and maybe needed to keep it at waist length - I have a very long torso so any gap is going to be accentuated!

I have decided that these tops are not really me and will probably end up being gifted or worn by my daughter. The details of the fabric and my full review of it can be found on Minerva's blog.

Making it Work

I don't know about you, but I sometimes have moments where I wonder if I actually know anything about fabric and sewing. I have those projects that should just work and for some unkown reason just don't. Do you know what I mean?

This project was one of those. All the elements for a successful make were there: stretch cotton, tried and true pattern, all the right notions and haberdashery but somehow - It. Went. Wrong. and I'm still trying to work out what I did that caused the error.

Recently I'd been working on a make for Minerva and had bought some black stretch cotton from 1st For Fabrics to line the top I was making and make an accompanying black skirt. I had enough left over for a cropped pair of trousers.

This cotton is super stretchy - it has a slight sheen and a smooth even surface, it does crease quite a lot, but as it's a stretch garment that isn't too much of an issue. The recovery is good too.

I settled with the Closet Case Ginger Jeans pattern as the base for these trousers - constructing them without all the top stitching as I was making trousers. I also omitted the back pockets. I made the same size that I had done the last time I made Jeans (less stretchy fabric) and made my usual adjustments. I even basted them and tried them on - all seemed well. However, once I had put the waist band on I tried them again and realised they were way too tight. I wouldn't have been able to sit in them.

Cross with myself I threw them in the corner, thinking that they might fit my daughter, if I could be bothered to finish them - she wasn't intreested. I left them there for several days until they were ready to say sorry and I took another hard look at them, determined to make it work. I hadn't trimmed the waistband so that could be taken off and I'd left the full seam allowance on the inseam and outseam. 

I unpicked the waistband from the front to just past the side seams to allow me to adjust them. Then I let out the inseam and outseam by 0.5cm - not much at all, but enough to make a whole world of difference to the fit. Before sewing a second line of stitching to secure the seams, I thought I had better try them on - Hooray, success! I thought to myself as I pulled the zip up and straight off the end of the zipper! DOH! I had forgotted I'd trimmed the zipper tape.

Off I went to my local fabric shop to buy another zip as I didn't have another at home and then proceeded to complete the fiddly task of applying a zip after finishing the fly!

With the buttonhole finally made and a button from my stash and the hems completed, these were finished. I wore them to work last week and got lots of compliments  - they are very slimming! I'm not sure how much wear I'll get out of them before it becomes too cold, but I'm sure these will be a great addition to my summer work wardrobe.

Ginger Jeans Take Two

 I made more Ginger Jeans. This pattern is fast becoming a staple and I've just cut out a pair of cropped trousers using the same pattern. I made these jeans to review some slub stretch denim which was sent to me free of charge in exchange for my review.

These have been getting some serious wear this summer and I've had lots of compliments when wearing them. Alongside my Doc Marten sandals, they have become my casual uniform!!
I wore them for pounding the streets of Liverpool and Chester last week while we were visiting our friends. You can check out my full post and review over on the Minerva Blog.

Gingers - finally

Last Christmas my Hubby bought me the Closet Case Ginger Jeans pattern. Ever since then I have been on the lookout for some stretch denim of a decent weight. I finally got my hands on 2m while at #sewupnorth at the end of September. This is an inexpensive denim and it does show. I don't think these will last too long but for the first experiment, I didn't want to spend a lot of cash, just to have a failed project. But these are a success and they will get worn  -  a lot!

It's the first time I've attempted fitted/ skinny jeans and the stretch fabric does really make a difference. this denim has about 20% stretch and I was unsure at first how the stretch would affect fit. I thought these might bag out really quickly or be super tight like jeggings. however I've worn these for a couple of days and they have softened quite a bit and relaxed, but are still comfy. The creases are from a day's wear.

I decided that I didn't want a skinny leg and fancied some flared jeans, so I added width from the knee to the hem, making the inseam about 33 inches in length. I have not sewn with a Closet Case pattern before and went solely by my size. I cut a size 8 at the waist grading to a 12 at the hip and leg. I assembled the front of the jeans and then basted the remaining pieces to assess fit. I did make quite a few changes before sewing up the jeans and topstitching.

Changes made:
1.5 cm from the side seams between the pocket opening and the fullest part of my hip. about 20cm in length grading to nothing at either end.
1.5 cm from the width of the thigh at the inseams. I also shortened the inseam by about .8cm front and back.
I took out at a total of 6cm from the CB at the top of the yoke. I didn't grade this quite evenly enough and ended up with a bit of a bump. I'll smooth it for next time.

This meant that my waistband was too long. I should have stretched it to fit a little more as it is still a tad too loose.

I used the sew-a-long on the Closet Case website which is a fantastic guide to sewing jeans and goes over some of the fitting issues and how to solve them.

I'm generally pleased with the fit of these and can see me using them as a starting point for my own designs. I chose the high waisted version, but it's not too high waisted at all, but then I do have a long torso. these are super comfy, even without a belt. There was no way my machine was going to handle 8 layers of denim in order to stitch the belt loops on - so I left them off. I can safely say that, despite a slightly loose waistband, these are the best fitting jeans I have.

I do think there is a bit of twisting on the leg, which I was quite surprised about as I cut out the fabric in a single layer and used a ruler to check that all my pieces were on grain. However, this isn't too noticeable and will not stop me wearing them.

Today I have them paired with my newest blouse, converse and a hand knitted cardigan (made for me by my sister in law - I can't knit).