Most worn: Ginger Jeans



Given that my black Ginger Jeans are one of my favourite and most worn items, I gave the pattern a second go for a pair of spring/summer jeans. I'd say the results are mixed on these for a few reasons, and I actually made these last summer but haven't blogged about them because of that. However, I found a way around what I wasn't happy with and now I've ended up wearing them a lot since the spring.

Fabric

For the Ginger jeans you really need stretch in whatever you make them from. At the time I was looking, there wasn't a lot around in terms of stretch denim, especially in the khaki colour I had in mind. However, Empress Mills did have exactly what I needed in this stretchy slub denim at £9 a metre. I used this fabric for my Chataigne shorts as well - so 2 metres got me a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts too. I do remember that although it was easy enough to work with, my hands ached so much after cutting out both patterns! The stretch in this denim makes a huge difference to how comfortable the jeans are and I'd recommend looking around on Empress Mills because they have so many different colours to choose from.
Pocket linings were made from remnant cotton fabric.

Pattern and Instructions

I used the Ginger Jeans pattern from Closet Case Patterns for the first time when I was leading the #wardrobebuilder project in 2017. March was jeans month and lots of people chose this pattern just like I did. It is not too formidable for a first pair of jeans and there is a lot of help available online (if you are thinking of sewing your first pair of jeans, you might want to check out my top 5 tips here)

5 tips for sewing your first pair of jeans


Because it was part of the #wardrobebuilder project, the pattern and instructions were covered in a lot mroe detail than most of my other pattern reviews so you might want to check out...
Part 1 constructing Ginger Jeans also includes details on how to adapt the pattern for a mid-rise jean, which I did again on my second version.
Part 2 Ginger Jeans covers fitting details, and there were a few lessons learned here that I tried to avoid in my second pair. For instance, the zip fly on my second pair sits a lot better now. I'm still not confident enough to try installing rivets everywhere though.

The only thing I have found as an issue on both pairs is something that I now need to research a bit further to correct properly in future. I have found that the lower leg tends to twist to the side. I have made sure that I cut the denim as advised on the Closet Case blog to prevent this, but it still happens. This makes me think it's not the denim grainline that's the issue, but that my seam placement needs adjusting in some way - perhaps there's not enough fabric at the back of the calf on one side? If you have any tips on where I can get to the root of the problem let me know in the comments below.

Also....

For some reason I stitched a hem that was a bout half as deep as it is meant to be. It looks okay from a distance but to me it was a little odd and so what with the twisted leg thing, these didn't get worn  much. Then I began to turn up the bottoms and found that I was wearing them much more frequently. It's not the look i started out with, but it's actually much better so goes to show that mistakes aren't always a disaster!


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Welcome to Sewing and Other Stories; my journeys with sewing and knitting; pattern reviews, tips and guides for beginners. I'm also the designer behind West Beach Knits knitting patterns and I host a Knitting and Sewing channel on YouTube where you can see all of this in person. Come have a look!

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