New spring jeans with some bling!

I just love this pattern from Vogue, 8774.  It's probably one of my all time favs as I've used it at least 6 times already and I see many more versions in the future!




It just has classic styling, a great fit and details.  Everything a girl wants in her jeans!  Plus depending on your fabric choice, you can make regular old jeans or something much more designerish.

I don't know about you, but about February or March, I am sick to death of gray, black, and brown, and have a need for color and I found this orange denim at Fabric Mart from Leslie Stuart.  It was very nice to work with, has just enough stretch and I got to glam it up a bit with rhinestones and some variegated topstitching thread and for me, it's love!

Since I've made this quite a few times and have never been 100% completely satisfied with the fit, I keep tweaking and tweaking and tweaking.  I get a bit concerned that I might be overfitting, but whatever...I'll keep trying!

Here are my modifications to date:
1/2 inch swayback adjustment
Scooping out the crotch seam, both front and back
Taking in the side seams and waistband
Rotating the front inseam to back
Taking a fisheye dart in the back upper thigh area since I'm blessed with an exceptionally flat rear end

For this pair, I wanted a bit slimmer legs so I took in the side seams about 1/2" on each side.

These are ultra comfortable which is awesome!

In addition to fitting I also like playing with the designer touches and this time was no exception.  With stretch denim, sometimes the seams can get a little stretchy when you topstitch so to alleviate that problem, I use staytape when I constructed the back yoke seams and also the front pockets.

I also like to lengthen the front fly shield by about a half inch just to try and cover up the bottom of the zipper stop.  That is super easy and works better plus it is fun to have a pretty inside view of the pants as well as outside.

With denim, I am all about comfort and I don't like how thick the waistband gets when you turn under the inside seam allowance and stitch it down.  I much prefer to add bias binding to the edge and topstitch the entire thing down to secure.  Not only does it feel better, but many higher end pants have this detail so I figured why not?

Since I had the orange bias tape out, I also decided to add it to the edge of the pockets.

With denim, there can be a lot of residual shrinkage, so I wash and dry twice before cutting out and then one more time before hemming--just to be sure.  Have you ever purchased a perfect pair of jeans and then had them shrink?  Me too!  Super annoying!

I love my jeans.  I plan on using this pattern more often.

Thanks for reading!
Sue