Here we go with part 2 of March sewing. I told you I’ve been busy, hehe. (And there will also be part 3 once I finish that post.) After wearing the un-bootcut stretchy jeans for a few days, I decided to try making a pair of relaxed-fit jeans. I have that awesome Calvin Klein jeans pattern from, what, the 90’s? But those have a rise that looks mighty close to the armpits. And I like mine medium, with a curved waistband.
Enter my good old TNT from Burda magazine back when it was called Burda World of Fashion (or BWOF, hehe). Remember that? Anyway, the pattern is #106 from BWOF 08/98. Mine no longer looks anything like the original wide-legged pleated-front trousers. I took out the pleats many years ago. This time, I also narrowed the leg from the knee down and shortened them to ankle length in an attempt to eliminate some of the tripping hazard. (You wouldn’t believe the stuff I trip on. Or maybe you would.)
The fabric is a nice heavier weight 100% cotton denim from G Street Fabrics in Rockville. It’s like denim used to be before manufacturers started adding lycra and polyester. I’d bought the last two yards on the bolt and after wearing the jeans, I was hoping to buy a whole bolt of this fabric but no luck. When we went back to G Street, all their black denim was the stretchy stuff. Oh well. I’ll just cherish this pair.
See the embroidery? I had fun with the back pockets. I used a design that came with the Bernina embroidery software. While looking for just the right design to put on these jeans (inspired by the hibiscus flower decals on my machine), I also took a few hours’ detour into organizing all the designs into folders to make future searches easier. Yay! I covered the back of the embroidery with a layer of stabilizer before sewing on the pockets, to ensure I wouldn’t snag the threads with my fingernails. That was an issue the first time I embroidered back pockets on jeans and a good learning lesson to remember.
I found two of my old labels and sewed one in. There should be an almost full box of them somewhere still but I think they disappeared in one of our moves. I haven’t seen the box in years. Isn’t the label neat?
And that’s all I have about these jeans right now. Stay tuned for the next post about the top I’m wearing in the pictures above.
See you soon!
(Originally published on my old blog, Studio Alexandra.)
