Thursday, February 21, 2013

Jalie 2908 “The perfect jean, or not”

Well after many months of trying to find the perfect fitting jeans that would fit my very expansive list of necessary qualities I decided to try to sew my own jeans again.  Now let me say that I have sewn jeans in the past but I have never been happy with the outcome of the pattern, maybe I am exceptionally persnickety or maybe I have a strange lower body but they are never 100%.  For me the perfect jean is a thinner boot cut leg, not too tight around the thigh( I have really developed muscular thighs from many years of Air Cadets), fitted through the hip and waist and hitting probably about an inch below my natural waist.  I am very high waisted and I have quite a small waist compared to my hip (waist 32in hip 42.5 inch) so they need to be nipped in quite a bit so I don’t have major gaposis.  I had read many reviews of several different patterns for jeans and went back and forth between Jalie or J Stern, in the end Jalie had more reviews and that I should just go with that one.  

I sewed like a mad beast over the weekend hoping that everything would look as great as Ms. Erica B’s did but when they were done I really don’t like them.  I bought thicker stretch denim which I washed and dried twice, it was the required stretch and it was a beautiful dark wash and pretty expensive.  I also bought the gutterman jeans thread in the classic gold color, rivets and jeans buttons.  I followed all instructions but changed the pocket design to my own design.  I powered through and managed to cut, interface, sew and topstitch the jeans in a 12 hour mania stretch. I was ecstatic because they looked great on my dress form, I put them on to marvel at my creation and was disappointed.  They give me mom butt, the stretch is too stretchy and they just are not right all over.   I will not even disgrace the inter webs with pictures of the horrendous mom butt effect, you will have to take my word for it.

My list of disappointments from these jeans is:

1.)    Even though I picked the low waist option they are still really high in the back, like comically high and I think that’s what furthers the mom butt issue but I did confirm that I was using the right pieces.

2.)    The pocket placement is too high for my butt, realistically I would need to lower the placement by at least an inch

3.)    The pocket placement is too far out towards the hip but not by much, I think if I moved them in a half inch it would make my aforementioned rear end look smaller and less momish
 
4.)  There is some extra fabric directly below my bum that bunches up.  I have done fisheye alterations for the rear before and it has helped.  I just found a great Kenneth King alteration that I may use instead.  But the extra below the bum is just unattractive

5.)    The front rise is a little too low maybe if I raised it by an inch it would be more comfortable.

6.)    I hate the bias cut waistband.  I did read through the reviews and many people commented that this waistband had a tendency to roll over but when I first make a pattern I try to follow the pattern to a t, then I make alterations for the next time.  But this wasitband should be removed from the pattern and a contoured band should be added.  

7.)    I don’t think that the pattern actually needs as much stretch as the denim I bought had.  I really think that I probably could have gotten away with as low as a 10% stretch.

8.)    I don’t have a large belly but I do carry some flub around my midsection and I don’t know whether it’s the cut or the fabric but these jeans seam to enhance said flub.  If I do make these again I will extend the pockets to the fly area to act as a little tummy control. 

Now with the list of things I would change I have to ask myself if I am going to bother making another pair of jalie jeans or not.  Right now I am too disappointed to even contemplate that, I had really been hoping to have a great pair of home sewn jeans for an upcoming trip but sadly that is not the case.  But further do I stick with Jalie whose block apparently doesn’t work for my body or do I try J Stern or do I whip out my trusty drafting book and get back into the drafting saddle.  I have drafted pants before in the past but I have never done jeans but I think that I could probably do it.
Not all is lost I did have enough denim to make a little skirt so I have sewn that up but I am not going to post pictures of anything I have sewn for my vacation until I get back.  But in the last few weeks I have sewn 3 skirts, two and a half dresses, two dress shirts and a wrap for the plane.  Do not worry all will be revealed once I return on March 13.

Till we speak again
Hugs

Megs

 

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