Hi! Anyone following me on IG may have noticed that I jumped on the #makenine2019 bandwagon in January! I thought it would be fun, and provide focus, to choose 9 main things to sew and really spend time on in 2019. The first square in my little chart happened to be the Bryce Cargo/Jean hack I'd been working on before Christmas, and I ended up completing this first of my nine! Woo hoo!
Even MORE fun is that Adrianna of Hey June helped hold my hand through the yoke drafting, and when I asked if she'd be interested in my writing a tutorial, she shocked me and said SURE! So if you hop on over to the Hey June blog, you'll find my tutorial with simple diagrams showing how I converted a darted back pant, to a yoke-backed jean pant!
Here on MY blog, I'm just going to talk about the denim I used, and my pant sewing journey to date.
Since January 2018, I've made 3 Ginger Jeans (1 of which do NOT fit even a little bit - way too tight), 3 pairs of Bryce Cargo Pants (I only wear one of them really regularly, my olive green pair which I love), and 2 pairs of these Bryce Jean Hacked pants. I have to admit I've really struggled to find the right weight and stretch and quality of denim to really compare to my Ready-To-Wear (RTW) jeans. I wear all the jeans I've made, but none of them are that snappy-stretchy denim that I'm craving. I have used everything from cheap denim to expensive Cone Mills denim. My two Bryce Jean Hacked pants are made from an Italian Denim (the light coloured ones), and Cone Mills S-Gene Stretch Denim (the medium blue ones).
The Italian denim (98% Cotton / 2% Spandex) ones fit great, the stretch is okaaaaay, and I love the colour so much.
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The Cone Mills (93% Cotton / 6% Polyester / 1% Spandex) ones definitely feel like higher quality denim, but I did not read the website correctly and didn't buy the denim that had the most stretch <crying>. They do fit well, as you can see in the pictures, but the knees are tight, and they're just not....snappy.
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I have had to remind myself that my pant sewing journey is the same as my journey sewing tops (or anything else!) - it takes time to learn and get things right. I put a high expectation on myself to nail things on the first or second try - I have a long history of this - and it frustrates me to no end when it takes longer, or god forbid, it starts looking like I won't nail whatever it is I'm doing. So I wear my jeans that aren't quite perfect, and I remind myself that as I get better, and they fit better, I will donate these, and replace them with the fruits of my quest to keep persevering! Because while I want to nail things RIGHT AWAY, I also have a low tolerance for leaving something alone until I've broken through to the other side. #yinyang #obsessive #stubborn
It seems to me that the right mix of cotton, polyester & spandex is the key, and also the enigma. I want snappy, skinny, almost painted-on jeans - but I want them to have the same recovery as my RTW jeans....is that too much to ask? LOL! So I'm curious - where are you buying your denim? What have you found to be the best mix for stretch AND recovery? What's been your experience making really skinny jeans, I totally want to hear your stories! Talk to me over on IG about this @sugarandcandy - that's where I feel like all the great convos and info sharing happen!
Thanks for reading, I hope you've enjoyed this and will hop on over to IG and tell me more about your pant (specifically jeans) journey!
xo Mandy