Named Jamie Jeans

My friend Megan from Meggipeg has been nagging gently suggesting that I make these jeans, so, being the submissive sort, I finally got round to it, but it took a while as I traced off a size 12 and kept tracing new patterns until I settled on the size 6 – that’s a lot of tracing! The jeans are the Jamie Jeans from Named Clothing, and there is a very useful sewalong which I did follow at the beginning.

They are skinny jeans with a regular rise and vertical front seams which are supposed to be slimming. The jury’s out on that one. I do like the slanted front pockets with contrast panel. I did what nearly everyone else did and simply turned the denim over to get some contrast. They are made from a fairly stretchy denim, which really increases the comfort levels, almost elevating them to the secret pyjamas category.

I made the jeans straight from the pattern, did the baste fitting as suggested and took in the side seams over the hip and upper thigh, but I still have some issues with the fit. Even with the long top, you can see lots of creases in the back legs. Please note that I didn’t take in the lower leg to make them really skinny as I hate wrangling myself in and out of jeans.

First up, they were a bit long but I sorted that out quickly. Then the back is quite wrinkled, with bubbles of fabric at my inner thigh. The pockets look rather enormous, but aren’t really. I considered making them smaller, but like the fact that these are able to take my phone. The split pocket is also a bit more interesting than the traditional jeans pocket.

A close up. I have to say that I have paid quite a lot of money for RTW jeans that don’t fit as well as these, but I make my own clothes so that I can have a good fit.

The front isn’t too bad, but somehow I made the fly a bit short, so will be unpicking it and extending it.

These are easy jeans to team with tops, and I like them with long tops best. The grey spotted cardigan is made from a Potter’s remnant, and I had so little fabric that I had to shrink it considerably, both in length and width, but I quite like it and it’s a really handy layering piece as the weather cools down.

The black top is a Deer and Doe Plantain Tee that I fiddled with. I added a drawstring pocket as in my striped top, this time with white cord as I didn’t have any black. I had intended to exchange the cords but have decided that I like the contrast. I rolled all the hems as the fabric would not behave well enough to hem it.

Even with the fitting issues, I really like the style lines of these jeans. In patternmaking class I have been learning how to apply my pattern blocks to bought patterns, and I have reworked this pattern to fit my block. I currently have these new jeans half assembled so time will tell as to whether or not I have been successful. Fingers crossed!