Sunday, April 6, 2014

Jeans # 3 and why NEVER to use cheap/inexpensive denim

My third pair of jeans ended up being a major bust :( this is what happens when you use fabric that is not if good quality. A very, very frustrating experience. 

The idea behind this third pair was to make a couple of small changes in the fit and use a denim with a small amount of spandex in it for recovery. The spandex in a high quality fabric provides excellent recovery and is supposed to keep things like knees and hips from bagging out. However, be warned.... If you purchase cheap denim fabric with a small amount of spandex you will NOT get good recovery, you just get more and More and MORE stretch. Which results in EXTRA baggy knees and hips and thighs. 

Case in point. Take a look at the pictures below. The photos on the left were taken right after laundering. This was how they were in fitting during construction. A fairly fitted pair of jeans with some slight additional changes needing to be made. (A slight scoop,in back crotch and and a wedge removal at top of back leg.) not a bad fit for jeans and lovely topstitching details! 
The pic on the right was taken exactly 24 hours later after an 8 hour wearing. On the side view you can clearly see the knees bagging and all the extra stretch in the hip /thigh area.

These are the EXACT same pair of jeans. I certainly cannot have my my jeans growing all day as I wear them. And I'm not talking about the normal ease of jeans as they relax onto your body I'm talking about the fabric just growing and growing!!! Booooo. 


Lesson learned, quality fabric makes a quality garment! 

At th every least I can use these as another pair of wearable muslins. They will be good for gardening and around the house work. Now I need to find some quality denim and try again. On the meantime I have a very nice pice of finewale black courdoroy that I can make up. 

On another not about pants. I met up with Sarah Veblen at the Sewing and Quilt Expo last week. And she gave a good looksee over my non-stretch pair of jeans and she thought the fit was almost perfect! She said to try scooping the back crotch a bit. I did a pants fitting with her and Rae Cumbie for the perfect pants pattern. I need to make some non-jeans style pants and I thought it would be nice to work less on the fitting and more on design and sewing! 

This weekend I've been working on a quilt for my granddaughter and have 2 maternity dresses cut out for my daughter. These are the last of the maternity sewing that I have planned. Hopefully these will hold her out for her last 11 weeks!

On a not so fun note.... I am once again battling a nasty cold this time it is all in my chest. Really dragging me down... I think I will have to skip my physical therapy tomorrow and instead go visit my regular doctor and see what is going on.

Happy Sewing

1 comment:

  1. I have a couple of pairs of jeans from cheap stretch denim. I swear they fit when I put them on. Then by the end of the day it looks like I've lost 10 pounds and my rear is sagging. It doesn't do much for the sewing ego or body image issues.
    Feel better soon.

    ReplyDelete

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