Please consider these proof that I still know how to sew! I made this outfit in my office-come-sewing-room over the course of a week or so and found them the ideal project with little easy-to-break-down jobs to do in and around Zoom calls and finding reasons to leave the house for lockdown walks.
The jeans are True Bias Lander pants with the patch pocket ‘hack’ that Kelli posted on the TB blog. I still wear my first pair of Landers regularly – over the years they’ve had the buttons replaced and fit adjusted yet the ink-black selvedge denim still looks so fresh and handsome – but I wanted a full length indigo blue pair for a different take on the silhouette too.
Since my measurements have changed in the intervening years, I printed out the PDF afresh, cutting a size 6 and tailoring in the waistline in a bit as I sewed them using the nice wide 1″ seam allowances. I’m delighted with the fit: the crotch, rise, leg width and so on are all perfect, it’s really nice to not have to fiddle and refine much sometimes.
The fabric was a Merchant & Mills treat, I picked this 11.2oz Japanese Organic Tumbled Denim as I wanted a fairly warm and sturdy yet soft feeling, which is exactly what this gave me. It’s got a slightly fluffed-up and distressed surface finish, which is lovely to wear but does make it a little more delicate when it comes to seams and unpicking – I accidentally made a tiny hole on the front when I had to unpick and move one of the belt loops.
The finishing touch was this hem effect, which I made by folding and pressing up the hem about 3 inches then roughly accordion-pleating and wrapping in an elastic band. Then I balanced the folded edge standing-up in a shallow plastic tub of 4:1 water:bleach solution for about 45 minutes. I was going for that sort of let-down-hem look like these jeans and I’m pretty happy with the little extra detail it gives the hem. I wanted to try distressing the seams and pockets with sandpaper too but given the denim’s soft finish I was a bit worried I’d weaken it too much, but hopefully they develop a lived-in look over time.
Neat guts! I love this fly, so easy to construct. I bought this rainbow overlocker thread recently from eBay and love the cheerful finish it gives the insides. This is the heaviest-duty workout I’ve given my Pfaff 630 yet and it generally coped well although it did ‘Nope’ out a bit when sewing on the belt loops through several layers, and I still don’t love making buttonholes.
Not a lot to say about the top in contrast: I made it in under an hour, it’s a Papercut Rise in a pretty mad checkerboard viscose jersey from Rainbow Fabrics (now out of stock) – the most time-consuming part was fussy-cutting in a single layer to get a nice symmetrical pattern layout (and match the neckband!). Feels nice to make and wear non-loungewear clothes from time to time.
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