Jamie Jeans

This is my third attempt at the Named Clothing Jamie Jeans, and they are the best fitting, although between the extra stretchy denim and some weight loss, difficulties were had!

This image may be familiar to some of you, but I am reusing it as I have found it difficult to find photographs of the front of these jeans.

For this pair, I went back to first principles and took them off to my patternmaking class to get a lesson on how to apply my block to a pattern that’s got different style lines from the usual run-of-the-mill jeans.

I thought the following photos might prove instructive. The Jamie Jeans pattern is on the left, and my block is on the right. Instantly we can see a difference in the shape and length of the front crotch curve.

This image shows the difference in the width and shape of the thigh part of the legs.

The back crotch curve is also quite different

and with version 2 it was noted that the back pockets were too low. My block is on top and this illustrates quite well that the back pockets were indeed too low.

and finally the yoke – massive difference here.

There were so many changes  that we took my block and copied the Jamie Jeans style lines on to it, but instead of making them skinny we gave them straight legs, which suits me much better, I think. I made the jeans at home and took them back to the class. They were pretty good, but I still had excess fabric at the back due to the aforementioned weight loss (just a note: I think I’ve put most of it back on during this trip!).

I had to unpick the back seam (which was flat felled and topstitched – aargh!) and the inside legs, and took a large wedge out of the top of the back leg where it meets the crotch curve. This photo illustrates the procedure.

I spent a great deal of time looking at the back of jeans everywhere, but especially on Pinterest. I had a bit of a rear end fetish there for a while! It became evident to me that people with really well fitting jeans are rather better endowed than I am and Sarah and I had to laugh when I suggested that I make some padded underwear (I’ve seen this for sale, so why not, I thought?) No-one turns a hair at a padded bra, so why did I feel a bit weirded out at this prospect? You’ll all be relieved to know that I didn’t indulge myself.

I just want to show the insides of the pockets. Sarah had this awesome ticking that she recovered from an old bag and it gives me so much pleasure every time I catch sight of it.

My new jeans have been popping up in various blog posts and instagram so I’m glad to get them blogged finally. Some of these photos will seem rather familiar, but they do highlight the fact that I’ve worn them to death already.

Apart from the better fit, we had a play with the back pockets.

Instead of having a straight horizontal split, they have a curved split with a piece of the other side of the fabric as a flat binding, to emulate the front pockets.

I have worn these jeans pretty constantly for the last five weeks, here I am wearing them walking through a small park in New York teamed with a new Named Patterns Kanerva top made from t-shirt fabric.

and checking out the wares in Purl Soho

The jeans need to be washed and shrunk a bit now as they’ve stretched out with all the sitting around, but they have really proven to be both comfortable and sturdy, and I can’t wait to make another pair.