Wednesday 30 December 2015

Ginger Jeans Disappointment

I took these photos yesterday when I was very excited.  Then soon after I was not very excited. I was very disappointed.  I'll get to that part later.  These are the Ginger Jeans from Closet Case Files


I have been lurking in her shop for months, looking at local denim sources, options for buttons and rivets and reading through the sew along over and over.  My denim history as an adult woman is pretty dismal, ranging from Target when I was desperate to City Chic denim which becomes more and more a disappointment each passing year.  So this new project seemed like a big moment for me.  I really want to no longer be dependent on those stores.  Or any stores.

I spent a long time looking for hardware.  I searched though eBay and etsy but didn't jump on anything, read through reviews of rivets and jean buttons, asked in Facebook groups.  One trusted online friend told me to just not bother without spending $600 on the special machines.  I pushed through that low point.  I tried to buy from a local supplier M.Recht but the site wanted an Australian Business Number.  Remember me mentioning the internet trying to suck the soul out of me.  Yeah I was trying to source for this project.  Remember in my head these are the jeans that make way for all of the jeans for the rest of my life pretty much.  So I am looking for the best, or at least a good source of hardware that I can buy from again.  I finally decided it was a coin toss between ThreadTheory and TaylorTailor.  The Australian dollar was better against the Canadian than the US so I went with ThreadTheory.

I found some stretch denim in the Alannah Hill outlet, but chickened out using it my first try.  I found some denim that felt very similar from Spotlight for my muslin.  I bought the ebook with the pattern.  You could totally do without the ebook and just use the instructions and sew along if you want but if you need a bit more hand holding it's good.  I appreciated it.


These are technically a wearable muslin.  I SHOULD have just cut out a pair of jeans proper instead of shorts but this seemed more approachable as a project.  I wanted to try view A first.  I didn't have any top stitching thread in my stash so I used some army green standard thread that didn't look horrible in my testing.  I used an edge stitching foot which is AMAZING for the top stitching.  My measurements atm are a 33" waist and a 45.5" hip.  That corresponds to a 14 waist and a 18 hip.  That sounded super scary grading two sizes in such a small gap.  I cut a 16 waist and graded to a 18 in the hips keeping the height of the 18.


Heather suggests basting everything together after the front pockets go in to check the fit.  I was a good sewing person and did just that.  When I tried them on the first time I felt so frumpy and not at all the sexy denim goddess everyone online said they felt like wearing their Gingers.  After lots of pinching and squinting in the mirror I came to a few conclusions. They were to big everywhere not just in the waist.  My crotch length was too long, an adjustment I had anticipated because I have trouble with that in RTW.  And after wearing City Chic denim for so long the balance of the front and back pieces didn't feel right.

Let me try and explain.  City Chic cuts the front of their jeans a lot narrower than the back pieces, this is very slimming at the front as there is less space between the pockets and fly and creates an illusion of a curvier backside which in this society of Kardashian worship is not a bad thing.  The side seam just felt like it was in the wrong place.  Not what I am used to.  I cut the front's two sizes smaller at the side seams and trimmed a bit off the crotch length and put them back together, hammered in a button and tried them back on.  And I was so happy.  The clouds parted and I shimmied around the house in the best shorts that have ever been on my body.


Have to tweak the pocket placement on the next pair.  Not bad though.



Later that night something bad happened.  I plucked this picture of Instagram.  Button snapped off.  I am not sure if I bent it or did something wrong but I got very discouraged.  My sewing mojo is still recovering.


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