Category Archives: Jeans

Worship Jeans

Pattern: Daughter Judy Worship Jeans

Fabric: Navy-grey (gravy?) slight stretch pinstripe denim from Cloth House

Pattern notes: Per the pattern description: “classic five-pocket rigid jeans pattern. Slim fit through the hip and thigh with a pitched straight waistband.” I made view A, the straight leg. I was looking to replicate a RTW pair of rigid straight leg jeans that I love but aren’t the most comfortable for all-day wear, and had heard good things about the Worship’s mobility and ease (see thecrookedhem’s pinned story for a cool breakdown on crotch pitch and such).

It’s my first Daughter Judy pattern and I was pretty happy with the package: the PDF has size layers and assembled smoothly and I followed the instructions which are well written and illustrated. The fly instructions are particularly unlike any I have tried before – you essentially keep the front pieces separate for as long as possible, then lap and topstitch the seam below the zip right at the end – but made for a robust and neat result.

I used one my machine’s decorative stitches for some of the topstitching: not sure on this aesthetic decision now they’re done but it was fun to sew. I used leftover tana lawn for the pocket bags. The button is temporary, I’ve ordered some new jeans ones.

Fit notes: I cut size 4 which is slightly over my current measurements for safety, but then due to both that and using a slight stretch denim ended up sewing the side seams with a larger seam allowance. I also took an inch out of the leg length at the adjustment line before cutting.

I don’t think I’d actually change much if there’s a next time: there’s a risk of overfitting and losing the intended wearing ease and range of motion, especially if cut in a non-stretch as intended. I especially like the pitched waistband, which dips down in the front – although, being straight-cut, it does gap a little bit in the back: a compromise I’ll accept.

Final thoughts: I like them! There’s something in a combination of the fit and this beautiful-quality denim that makes them feel RTW in a way that my prior homemade jeans haven’t reached (though I do still wear older jeans like these and these, 5-6 years later).

I’m not sure my wardrobe needs a bunch more jeans right now as the pandemic really shifted my tolerance for hard pants, but I have some lovely cord also from Cloth House that these could be cute in, or a light-wash / ecru pair for summer perhaps.

Kew jeans

Heyo! I made these pants over the course of last week… I used to be such a ‘get it all done in one sesh’ sewer but now I’m getting OK with taking more time over things, just to give myself something to do each day…

They’re Style Arc Kew Pants, gone in the jeans direction by uh, using denim and a hammer-on button. I really wanted some balloon leg pants and was torn between Bob, Victor and Kew but ultimately liked the pocket detailing on Kew the best. (I actually also made some Bob sweatpants but they were far too big and looked inzane, so may revisit that pattern at some point too.)

I did some flat pattern adjustments before getting started, mainly grading down the waist based on the finished garment measurements chart as there is 2″ of ease included and I prefer my waistbands snugger. This is quite easy as there are additional seams running down the back leg which provide a useful spot for adjustments. However I should have removed some width proportionally from the fronts too as now the side seams are hanging slightly backwards as the front is wider than the back. This is causing a bit of funny pulling around the pockets, but not enough to massively bother me.

The pockets have nice construction; there are self-fabric facings for the openings and a yoke for the visible part at the hip, which is attached on top of the lining fabric. Other details include a pre-curved waistband (hurrah, one less adjustment to make) and a dart at the front hem to peg in the silhouette – there’s supposed to be a cut-out notch detail but I sewed the dart all the way to the hem. As we all know by now, Style Arc instructions are pretty inscrutable, but I used my own techniques for the fly etc and I like the drafting and details a great deal. The fit is exactly how I hoped, with a bit of interest from the shaping but not wildly voluminous, though I was hoping for almost full length so took the smallest hem possible and they’re still pretty cropped. They’re very comfortable too; the waistband has stretched out a touch but hopefully they’ll snap back in the wash.

I used 9oz Brushed Bull Denim from Blackbird Fabrics; I was buying more of my favourite ever fabric and threw this into the order to make the most of postage. It’s really nice, the ideal mid weight with a soft finish to add even more comfort. Didn’t have an appropriate black zip in my stash so it’s navy but at least the brass detailing match.

I’m pleased with these, they definitely pass the WFH comfort test and I think I might make an indigo denim version some time.

GroOoOovy Landers with dip-dye bleach hems

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.

Mom jeans 2

Here’s the second pair of jeans made from my self-drafted pattern! In a classic blue denim this time, an indigo selvedge number from my go-to denim source, Ditto Fabrics.


I made a few little tweaks from my pink pair, mainly to get the centre back fitting better. I angled the back yoke seam even more to account for excess fabric in the small of my back, and also transferred a sliver at the top of the back leg onto the bottom of the yoke, as the yoke was looking a bit shallow. I’ve still got a fold there, so next time I’ll take even more out.

In further recycling efforts from my Monki base pair, this time I reused the zip! I used some scraps of rather loosely-woven ikat cotton for the pocket bags. I should have used something more stable, I hope they don’t shred quickly.


To keep things interesting I tried a different technique for the waistband, where the inner waistband is sewn to the inside of the pants first. Then you flip over the outer waistband, tuck in the seam allowance then topstitch and seal the outside in one pass. It’s a little bit like the tutorial that Heather recently posted on her blog. The benefit is there’s no need to invisibly secure the inner waistband like the regular technique, since you sew that first and then secure the outer waistband from the outside.

However I found that while the inside does indeed look super neat and tidy, it was harder to achieve a good looking result on the outside, particularly at the centre fronts where it felt bulkier than usual and was difficult to keep all the fraying edges tucked away, even with a liberal use of Aqua Glue. I had to re-sew a few bits where my stitching went awry, and was glad I wasn’t using contrasting topstitch thread!

My daily wardrobe has been desperate for jeans like these, since all my RTW pairs of this style are currently a little too tight (cold weather comfort eating and no exercise, I see you) and I don’t own a plain indigo pair. This pair has the benefit of being way more comfortable than my Monki RTW ones even when they did fit, since the denim is super soft and quite lightweight (and I think it has some elastane in, unusually for a selvedge), and the fit being obviously more tailored to me. They’ve had plenty of wear already! I just wish I’d done slightly contrasting topstitching for a bit of visual interest. I’m now on the hunt for a true solid black to continue building up my jeans rota.

Pink jeans

Phew, this slow sewing business means long blog posts are also the order of the day! Here are my new pink pants which I self-drafted and poured a lot of love and detail into, so there’s plenty to write about…

The style of these trousers is based on a pair of very much loved ready-to-wear mom jeans from Monki. ‘Mom’ style refers to the somewhat 80s aesthetic combo of high waist, loose fit through the hips, tapering to a ankle-length slim calf – a shape I think works pretty well on my pear shape but is difficult to find a good fit in the shops. My Monki jeans were made out of a rigid denim and I was forced to admit that they’d become just a shade too tight to be really comfortable. I haven’t seen a single commercial sewing pattern for this style so made the decision to sacrifice my jeans by cutting them apart to draft my own pattern.

The rubbing-off process was pretty straightforward: I seam-ripped the waistband and crotch apart then carefully cut close to the main seamlines to open up the legs. Then I pressed everything flat and traced all the pieces onto dot and cross paper.

I slashed and spread a little to add in extra width where needed to make them actually fit again, trued up all the adjacent seams then finally added grainlines, notches and seam allowances. Some pieces like the pockets were easier to draft off the tracing rather than the original jeans. It was all pretty intuitive, though you could check out this Craftsy class if you wanted to learn how to do it properly!

Drafting bring all the curious cats to the yard…




Having made loads of pants I could retrofit the construction method easily using standard techniques. I did a lot of baste-and-try as I went to make sure my drafting was working out okay. Generally I did a pretty good job on the fit but annoyingly I made a mistake adding width into the back yoke as it turned out huge and gape-y in the small of my back. I did my best to fix it but it’s left a few irritating puckers along the yoke seam. Additionally when I use this pattern again I’ll take some height out of the centre back as it’s wrinkling a bit horizontally too. But eh, linen wrinkles anyway so it doesn’t show up too much.

I used a heavyweight blush pink linen from The Fabric Store, which they kindly sent to me. I think this is the first linen I’ve got from TFS, which is silly since along with merino knits I think it is what the store is most well-known for. They have many different weights and get beautiful trend-forward colours dyed just for them (the dreamy Caper shade has been a big hit in blogland, and I have my eye on it too…). In fact I have barely sewn with linen at all generally. I think I’ve always been put off by the wrinkles and that it’s always felt both a little rough yet delicate and loosely woven to me.

I’m glad to find that so far, my fears were unfounded. It was great to sew with, a little lighter weight than the usual denim I use so helped to assuage any bulky seams. My only concern is that it’s rather loosely woven and frayed quite a lot as I was working, so I really hope it holds up to plenty of wear. All the major seams are overlocked and faux-flat-felled, and I think the flax fibre is stronger than it seems so my worrying may be unfounded.

There are lots of details that I poured extra time into, which I had a lot of fun planning and sewing. Despite being made of non-denim I wanted them to definitely read jeans rather than chinos, so added all the usual detailing: double topstitching across the seams, fly topstitching, and nice metal hardware. I love the sturdy pink and brass zip and the fun jeans button and rivets, all from eBay.

I didn’t want the waistband to bag out over time so I stabilised the entire top edge inside with some twill tape, and also added some loosely-stretched elastic into the back waistband only. (Interestingly the waistband – as copied from my source jeans – is straight, which never usually works on me but this one is very narrow and sits very high on the waist, so it doesn’t gape.)


Something I’ve wanted to try for a while: I added a little underlap with a concealed button to the inside waistband. This helps keeps the waistband horizontally aligned and gives it a little extra stability. Super happy with how it turned out and it’s definitely my best-sewn fly front overall. (Yeah the buttonholes look messy: I put some paper behind the fabric as it’s a really difficult area to feed under the buttonhole foot otherwise, and I haven’t picked it all out yet.)




I think this is my favourite bit: I picked off the original back waistband label, machine-embroidered stars over it with my daisy foot and sewed it back on. I like the reconstructed nod to the source garment and it also helps give these that proper jeans-y look. I got the daisy foot for Christmas last year and it’s the first time I’ve used it, it’s great!


Pink jeans might not seem like a capsule wardrobe essential, but this colour is pretty much a neutral to me these days. In fact I thought I’d have to wait until spring to start wearing them but they pair really well with sweaters (RTW and Toaster above) and I don’t really feel the cold too much anyway so I can start wearing them right away!

These jeans feel amazing to wear, amongst the most comfortable and well-fitting I’ve made/worn, and they were an absolute joy to sew, from drafting to hammering in rivets. Overall they took about three weeks of leisurely sew-time which I think is a good benchmark to aim for in my slow sewing going forward. I can’t wait until spring really kicks in when I’m sure they’ll get worn to death with tees and sandals. I’m definitely going to use the pattern again to make a classic indigo pair next – I have some selvedge denim on the way already.

Have you self-drafted or rubbed off favourite clothing? I think it’s quite addictive!

Wear-in your handmade jeans in five minutes

I’ve got a bit of a confession. I’ve got quite the stock of handmade jeans now – Gingers, Safrans, more Gingers – but they don’t tend to get worn as often as my trusty RTW pairs. The reason was always they they felt too crispy-new, too uniformly-coloured, with none of that lovely age (or slightly less lovely artificial ageing/distressing) of my favourite vintage or store-bought pairs.

So why did nobody tell me how fast and easy it was to get a lovely soft, faded, subtly-patina’ed finish on brand new handmade jeans, with nothing but a bit of sandpaper and five minutes of elbow grease? I’ve just turned three pairs of handmade jeans from meh to dreamy in a weekend.

Here’s how I did it. I got some fairly heavy-grade sandpaper out of our DIY cupboard and wrapped it around my hand. A sanding block would probably do the trick, too. I put the jeans on and simply started buffing away at the areas I wanted to fade and distress. I started around the front pockets, fly and waistband, then took long strokes down the inseam and outer seams. Then I crouched down (this is where you start to feel pretty silly) and rubbed the paper down my front thigh, down to the knees and calf. Finally I took it over the back waistband, back pockets and centre back seam.

The trick is to start with a little pressure and build it up. Hold the fabric fairly taut where you want a smooth fade and let it wrinkle and bunch a bit where you want whiskers to form. You also may want to put some paper or plastic sheeting down before you start as you’ll get indigo ‘rubbings’ falling off.

Finally, you can take the jeans off, check over for any bits that don’t feel uniform and scrub away a little more. I hung the jeans over the edge of my ironing board or over a tailor’s ham for this bit.

Here’s the same thing on my Cone Mills denim Gingers. This effect might not be for everyone, but I know I’m going to get a lot more wear out of these jeans now they feel soft and worn-in.