Ginger Jeans

I FINALLY MADE JEANS! To be precise, I sewed the Ginger Jeans from Closet Case Patterns.  And I hacked them to have a pull-on waistband.

I know, I've been talking about sewing the Ginger Jeans forever.  I bet some of you thought I was never actually going to do it.  I wasn't sure myself, so I don't blame you.  But I finally did it, and it was one of my first makes of 2017 to boot.

I sewed my Gingers in a very stretchy denim purchased a few months ago from Fabric Mart.  I started with View A (the mid-rise stovepipe leg) but ended up closer to View B by the time I was finished with my modifications.

I cut the size 16 and basted it together.  Immediately I knew that I was going to need more coverage in the behind - the seat dropped when I walked up stairs or sat down, and it gaped.  I did two things to remedy this. First, I scooped out the back crotch curve about 1".  Much better.  Then, I raised the yoke height by 1" at center back (tapering to nothing at the side seams), and slashed the yoke pattern in two places to overlap it at the top, creating a much more curved yoke piece than I started with.  Here's a crummy iPhone photo of my yoke (top) compared to the original.

I also omitted the traditional waistband in favor of a stretchy self-fabric band, to create pull-on jeans. I bought a pair of pull-on jeans at the thrift store last year and they changed my world.  Up until that point, I had no idea that non-maternity pull-on jeans existed. At least not ones that didn't have a gnarly gathered elastic waistband and front pleats.  This was seriously a life-changing discovery.  I've always been a big fan of jeans, but lately I just can't stand a firm waistband when my middle section is so prone to changing sizes throughout the month week day.  As I never wear shirts tucked into jeans, this is a no-brainer.

My waistband, which finished at 3", is contoured at the sides, so at the bottom it is 35" around and at the top it is 32".  It is stretched to fit 39" of waist at the top of the jeans yoke.  I think I need a more curved waistband, though, so I will slash my waistband pattern piece in a couple of places and overlap at the top before sewing these again.

When I first sewed these jeans I had some crazy wrinkling at the back knee.  I suspected after sewing my Chi-Town Chinos that I might need a knock-knee adjustment.  I found a very informative post at Stitches and Seams discussing how a full inner thigh (which I definitely have) results in the same fit issues as a knock knee.  The basic idea of the method I used is to shift the entire pant leg towards the inseam.  Having already cut out my pieces, I couldn't do the full adjustment, but I resewed my seams with a 1/4" allowance at the inseam and a 1" allowance at the outseam, effectively moving my legs over 3/8" towards the center.  This actually did help the back wrinkling a bit and I'm curious to see what would happen if I did the adjustment the right way.

So, then I finished sewing them, topstitched them up and wore them.  They bagged out like crazy.  So I took them off and took the side seams in 3/8" inch from waist to calf, tapering to nothing at the hem. That was much better, and lessened the back wrinkles a bit more.  Then I wore them for another day and ended up taking them off and tapering a further 1/2" starting at the bottom of the pocket and ending at the fullest part of my calf.  I actually took the side seam in even more around the knee, curving the seam in and back out again.  That seemed like the wrong way to go about fixing the extra fabric there but it seems to have worked without issue.  I think by the time I was done doing this, I had effectively skinnified the jeans all the way down to View B, with the exception of the ankle, which I prefer to be a little straighter, so maybe I should have started there to begin with!

After yet another day's wear, I wondered whether the pants' migration south had anything to do with the fact that my front crotch was too long.  I ripped open the inseam and sliced 1/2" off the top of it, tapering to nothing about four inches down the inseam. That took care of some of the extra fabric there, but I think I actually need to do a different type of alteration to shorten the crotch - the method I tried also reduces the inseam, which I don't need.  If I slash the pants pattern above the crotch and overlap it, I'll get the shorter rise but keep the inseam intact.  Still doesn't solve the slippage problem, but maybe there's no way around that with these pull-on jeans.

And I'm having one other issue with these jeans, one that I haven't seen in any other reviews.  Can you tell what it is?

My pockets keep moving up out of themselves.  I would assume that this was a result of the jeans being too tight but they're really not too tight.  I'm going to widen the pocket facing pattern for next time, to ensure that the edge doesn't peek out, but I'm not sure why I'm having this issue when no one else seems to.  In any case, my shirt is almost always covering my pockets, so it doesn't affect the wearability of this pair.

I am 5'8", and I didn't add any length, but I did only hem them up 5/8" after serging the raw edge  I'll need to add some length to hem them the way Heather calls for.  No matter - I've been wearing these non-stop since I made them, and they are now my favorite jeans, so I'm calling them a rousing success.

I friggin' made jeans!

(And psst, since I wrote this post, I've made a bunch more.  You can read about all the pairs of Gingers I've made by clicking here.)