I've completed another item off of my fall/winter sewing plans. This time a basic pair of blue jeans. I was sorely in need of these!!! My last pair of basic blue jeans wore out about 6 weeks ago. My jeans always wear out in the upper thigh area. I only ever have 1 or 2 basic pairs of jeans at one time and they get a lot of use! I think that since I finally have a pretty good jeans sloper I may have to make a couple more.
Right now for causal wear I have these blue denim jeans, the red denim jeans and the eggplant courdoroy jeans.
These blue jeans are a slimmer fit and a little longer in length, allowing for that slight shrinkage in length over time and washes. I have learned that even with one or two prewashes that the fabric still shrinks up in length. My eggplant courdoroy pants have done this and now I have to wear them with a cuff turned up to purposely make them look like short ankle length. OR else I look like a total dweeby looking nerd with my high waters on!!!
I love my red jeans but they have no Lycra content and after one wearing they stretch out or maybe more like the weave just relaxes a bit. They are more of a full relaxed fit Jean. They are also a straight cut Jean with no tapering to the ankle. So Super comfy! Although my hubby says they look baggy.
These latest pair are a bit more of a fitted Jean with a tapered leg. I would by no means call them a 'skinny' Jean.
I still struggle a bit with the wrinkle of extra fabric at the back of the thigh. Or at least I was until I did 2 things!
First up.... I observed a lot of women in jeans, even some guys too. Some I am always in an airport there are a lot of people and this makes for great people watching. I even took some photos for my own refrence. Not to really be shared. I noticed several things. The only truly well fitting jeans with NO wrinkle on the back of the legs were in woman that have a small ass and who are generally smaller all over. On all of the women who had bigger asses or who were plus sized you had the extra back thigh fabric unless they were wearing jeggings or stuffed into a pair of jeans several sizes to small. Those were not pleasant images either!
The second thing I did was to go to a store and try on several styles and sizes of jeans. I found the same thing as I observed on other woman. I could minimize the amount of wrinkles but due to the size of my ass I just could not eliminate all the wrinkles unless I went with a jegging or just something so tight there was no way I would wear it ever in public or even in private!
All of this observing and trying on got me to thinking of the pattern and to how jeans physically function in relation to my body. Well. With a big ass more fabric is needed to wrap around the junk in the trunk.
2 woman the exact same height with the exact same leg length and waist to floor length and even the same waist measurement can have differing amounts of fabric needed just due to the size of the hips. That extra fabric needed to cover that extra area has to pool somewhere at least a bit upon standing. Therefore causing some of the back leg wrinkles.
Now, there are some fitting tricks that can be done to minimize these wrinkles. Like pinching out the excess from under the butt and translating that to the flat pattern by slashing from inseam to outer seam and overlapping. Then you have to make sure to add some length back to the lower inner leg and re-true the grain line so your pants don't get all twisty. This works for some of the issues.
I have also made adjustments in the crotch length to allow a little more room which may or may not allow more fabric to take up space in the pelvic area therefore reducing some extra wrinkles. Not sure this helps much on jeans since they are considered a fitted piece of clothing.
The only technique that I have not tried is to literally just remove an amount of fabric that I have pinched out from the pattern and then keep my hip and knee points the same and ease the front length to the back (or stretch the back length to fit the front!) this is on my list. I am just afraid of having my side seams look funky.
Once you move into trousers and dress pants it is much easier to get rid of those back leg wrinkles because the garment is not as fitted so the fabric can skim over the body more and hang nicely. Jeans don't do that! Jeans on most woman are tight and more conformed to the body.
So with all of that said I am actually quite happy with this pair of jeans. Back thigh wrinkles and all!! I am even tempted to try making a pair of skinny jeans that fit more closely and to be worn only with longer tunics. In the mean time I have some black courdoroy that I may try making into a boot cut Jean.
Here are some of the details... Fun pocket bags made form leftover superhero cotton.
So.... My question to all of you that make jeans and have a generous ass, How do you accommodate for the junk in the trunk??
Today is my nieces 1st birthday!! Happy Birthday to Roxie :) she lives in the Netherlands and I miss her so much!!! Im so glad she loves her turtles :)
