Dark wash jeans

I am quite pleased with progress on the list of projects I posted the other day.

The jeans I was working on last week are now done. These are another pair of Jalie 2908 and I made them as they were designed, with a boot cut leg, rather than slimming the legs as I did with the previous two versions. The topstitching is a near match for the fabric and doesn't stand out at all. I have a couple of pairs of purchased jeans that have topstitching done this way and they look a bit smarter than the pairs that have contrast stitching so this was what I was aiming for with this pair. The fabric was from Emma One Sock and was really nice to work with. The seams bashed down nicely and my machine only balked at sewing over three of the thickest seams, and even sewed the buttonhole without incident, after I had bashed the life out of the end of the waistband it was going to be put into. I used the tutorial that Rocketboy put up on PatternReview to make a contrast lined waistband, and the lining came from RuthieK who gave me a length of this lovely fabric last year. The pocket bags show slightly through the denim, which is disappointing and I can't quite see why they do this as the fabric is very fine and thin. But the photos don't seem to show it so perhaps I am just too close to the project and seeing things that other people wouldn't even notice.

I have also altered the Marfy 1876 trousers, using my master pattern as a guide. This wasn't quite as easy as I had hoped, but I got there in the end, and I am sure with practice it will get easier to do. I was going to take photos of the various stages, but the camera battery ran out. I'll try and take some next time (assuming the process works well enough to be worth repeating). I did the alterations at mum's house, taking advantage of her custom built cutting table to work on and whilst we were chatting she was rummaging about in her stash cupboard. Out came a piece of silk linen in navy which she says she won't ever use. So that has been used as my first attempt at these trousers, which are all cut out but on hold. The fabric is very floppy, lacks body and is quite lightweight for trousers. Whilst doing tests of interfacing for the zip pockets, I found a lightweight, woven, fusible interfacing that seemed to give the fabric a bit of body and also stop it from wrinkling quite so much. I thought I would try interfacing all the pieces with this type of interfacing to see if it made the material behave better. But of course there was only a small bit of the interfacing left, and the fabric shop was closed, so the whole thing is on hold until I can get to the shops.

And finally, the button fly jeans. So that I can be sure I have the proportions right and that I fully understand what I am doing, I am making a mock up/practice run of the button fly from some nasty cream and gold twill lined with brown and cream print quilting cotton. I've made the fly pattern and cut out all the pieces ready to start on this next week.