3x the Charm? - Black Gingers

Well, well, well... Look at who can't get enough lol. I have completed my 3rd iteration of the Ginger Jeans pattern from ClosetCaseFiles. First two here and here. I don't see myself getting tired of this pattern. I'm in jeans whenever I don't have to dress up and they're just comfortable. Plus the October project for the ThRed&Needles group on Facebook was jeans. This time around I really attempted to fix some fitting issues that I dealt with on previous versions (mostly version 2) and I think I did a pretty good job.

Before I get into those, though, let me just talk about the regular stuff. I got this fabric in Panama when I went last year. I LOVE IT. It's so thick but has the perfect amount of stretch and recovery. I kinda wore them out before I took these fancy Fall shots so they're kind of bagged but they don't look too bad. The only bad thing about it, or maybe just black in general, is that it attracts lint like nobody's business. That's kind of annoying but that's what lint brushes, or my personal fave TAPE, is for. 

I sewed these up by the book. It was SO hard for me to not try to add some kind of spin on them but I really needed a pair of JUST black jeans. My favorite pair are literally falling apart. I even used black pocket bags lol Only for fear that other colors would show through. I was a bit TOO lazy though because I have silver rivets and a rust colored button and gold zipper LOL. Things noone will notice but I didn't feel like going shopping. My stash has weakened my integrity :-( lol

I used black topstitching thread and just serged all the seams instead of flat-fell stitching.

I cut View B in a size 12 again. I debated for a WHILE on whether or not to cut a 10 but I decided against it because I already knew some of the issues I wanted to address from my cut-off version and didn't want to start completely from scratch.  One of the things I had to fix was the baginess at the front. I knew the crotch curve was wrong. I made some adjustments as I was sewing my cutoffs and then transferred those to the pattern afterward. Unfortunately, I had increased the seam allowance at the front crotch curve and changed the pivot point (which was a good adjustment), but I wasn't thinking enough to adjust for a new center front line. So the excess that I needed taken out really wasn't.

What I did to fix this was to keep my new crotch curve seam allowance and change my center front line.  Then I had to think.... I stopped what I was doing and tried on another pair of pants that I had made that had a smooth front. Burda 6981. I had the bright idea to line up that curve and see if I was on the right track. Turns out I was! 

If you look at the pic below, you will see the original pattern at the bottom, a little of my traced version in the middle and the Burda pattern on top. I was on the right track with the change in my crotch curve but I needed more scoop instead of just cutting a straight line. Who knew? The pivot point that I moved over lined up with the center front of the burda pattern too so that was nice to see.

After scooping out that little bit, I had awesome results! That line that goes across the bottom of the zipper isn't a whisker. It's the outline of the pocket stay. I really have to figure out how to get rid of that. I see it on all my versions and it's annoying. I'll have to change my order of constructing that bags. Maybe pinking them instead of serging and folding up. But anyway, I'm really happy with the fit of these. I do see that I could probably take some height out of the front though. But that's for another time.

For the back of the jeans, the adjustments I made were to sew the yokes together with a 1 inch seam. I also sewed the back curve starting with a 5/8" SA at the crotch and increasing it to 1 inch around where you see the double lines on my pockets and all the way up to the yokes. I decreased the full butt adjustment from 1 inch to either .5" or .75" (can't remember at this very moment). Attaching the back pant to the yoke, the seam allowance starts at 5/8" at the side seam and increases to 1" at the middle intersection. All of those were takeaways from my cutoff version and they worked amazing for this version. The fit is pretty exact.

 As a result of the change in seam allowances and the center front line, I decided to cut a size 10 waistband. I added the same curve to it as my cutoff version.

Other less technical changes I made:

• Added 2 inches to the length. When I discovered a 34" inseam in middle school, my whole life changed LOL It's mandatory now.

• Only added rivets to the outside of the front pockets and the coin pocket

• Added 2 horizontal lines to the pocket bags for style points lol

• Topstitched 2 lines for the hem instead of one.

• Added a faux leather patch to the waistband. 

After saying, and doing, all of that, I think for my next version, I'm going to trace and cut a 10 to see if maybe that will give me the fit I want without MAJOR changes to the pattern lol The 3 things I will take with me to size 10 would be the crotch curve adjustment, the curved waistband, and the full butt adjustment. I may up that back to 1" for the size 10. 

Luckily for me, Heather just released paper versions of all her patterns so I won't have to deal with this annoying poster of taped up pages. That was one of the reasons I didn't want to start over. 

Another plus for the Gingers, Heather is trying to take all of my money and released a Jeans Sewing ebook with actual pics of fitting issues and how to fix them so I'm hoping my next pair will be exactly what I want!

See you back here with a recollection of my trip to Panama :-)

AND shoutout to my friend Pageio for these pics! He owns a photography company in the DMV so if you are looking for a photographer, hit him up! CCP Photos