Ginger jeans in three colors

  

 For years I have been trying to sew my own pants with limited success. The pants always fit, but they never looked ready to wear. After years of trying, I realized part of the problem is that my lower body needs several adjustments with standard fit patterns. Namely, the full front thigh and large calf adjustment. [A result of too much long distance running!!] I recently purchased the latest copy of  Fitting and Pattern Alteration: A Multi-Method Approach to the Art of Style Selection, Fitting, and Alteration, by Elizabeth Liechty. This is a textbook and was rather expensive, but I have found it to be an indispensable resource in making my hand made clothing fit better.

Now that I know my required pattern adjustments  I am able to make great fitting clothing! I recently vowed to make more casual clothing for myself so that I can transition to a completely hand sewn wardrobe. The biggest gap in my closet is  casual pants (which I wear daily) and the Ginger Jeans pattern from Closet Case Patterns got my attention with this stylish photo of Heather Lou, the designer behind Case Closet Patterns, in white Giner Jeans. I chose the mid-rise version because I want to avoid having my underwear peek through every time I bend over.

Fabrics and Notions:

• I made my three pairs of mid-rise, cropped Ginger jeans using 9.5 oz white and black Cone Mills Denim from Threadbare Fabrics,  and a fantastic blue linen-cotton-lycra blend denim from EmmaOneSock. All of these fabrics were perfect for this pattern. I was a little concerned about the white denim potentially being to transparent, but it is completely opaque.
•  I used Japanese rivets and buttons  leftover from previous jean making projects, which I purchased on Etsy from Citron Jeans. 
• I added a leather patch from my leather scrap pile to the white and light blue pairs to make them look more ready to wear. 
• I used 7 inch brass jeans zippers for all three pairs.
• For topstitching I used a design I previously created on my white jeans, and a downloaded .pdf file that I received for free from Case Closet Patterns. I used Gutterman topstitching thread for the black and white jeans, and regular thread with the triple stitch on the light blue jeans. 
• I attempted to distress the black jeans using techniques I learned in Angela Wolf's "Sewing Designer Jeans" Craftsy class, which I highly recommend for learning techniques to achieve a more professional/ready to wear looking finished garment.

End result:

Please excuse the wrinkles, these were fresh out of the dryer when I took these photos.

 I love my new cropped Ginger Jeans! 

Thanks for reading!