Hey everybody! I'm back with yet another jeans post! Yay! I was really hoping to get this one up sooner, as my blog is really starting to drag behind my reality, but what can you do. Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging. Anyway, on to the task at hand, let's talk about Named Patterns' Jamie Jeans.
When I first started seeing this pattern pop up around the blogosphere, I wasn't entirely smitten. I liked the skinny jean aspect, but I wasn't completely sure if I was down with the centre leg seam. But after seeing lots of versions (I really loved this one, and this one), it grew on me, and I decided to give it a try.
Before I jumped in to making these bad boys, I had a quick read through the sew-a-long on the Indiesew website. Allie had mentioned that she found these jeans to fit a little on the bigger size, so she recommended going down a size. The size chart has me in between a 42 and 44 in the waist, and between a 40 and 42 in the hip. Because I am a bit bigger in the waist, I decided to go with a straight size 42. I now think, I would have been better off with a size 40, but it also can depend on the stretchiness of your denim too.
The denim I used for this pair, is a black mystery stretch denim that I picked up at JoAnn when we were in Palm Springs last year. It's really nice and soft, but not the highest quality, so it does bag out with wear, and I do expect that it will shrink every time it goes in the dryer (that happened with one of my Gingers made from similar denim). The more jeans I make, the pickier I am becoming about the denim I use, and how I take care of it. These are technically a wearable muslin though, so I'm not too worried about it.
As you can see the fit isn't perfect, but it's pretty close. I love the rise; I think the waistband hits me in a good spot, and the really like the width of the leg. It's a great skinny jean. I think next time, if I were to go down a size, the fit would be even better. Can you see how the legs look a little baggy? My advice? Go down a size, and then baste them together to check the fit. There isn't a ton of room to go bigger as the seam allowances are only 3/8" (although there are lots of seams to let out if you need a bit more room), but I'm thinking that as long as your denim has stretch, you'll be okay as these are meant to be quite skinny.
I'm still not 100% sold on the centre leg seam. It feels a bit strange when you wear the jeans, and as my husband put it, it makes the jeans fancy. Side note: John hates them. He was quite passionate about it too. He doesn't usually use the word hate about my sewing unless he really means it. When I put this pair on to show him, he was quite adamant about how he hates the centre seam, the weird pockets, and pretty much everything about them. Isn't that strange? I thought he might change his mind after I wore them a few times, but no, he hasn't. He did agree that I managed to get a good fit though, so there's that.
And now for for the nitty gritty fit details:
- started with a size 42
- shortened the legs by 2"
- removed 1" from the front crotch depth and graded out to zero at the side seams (to see what I mean check out this post by Lauren, she does a similar alteration to her Thurlows)
- scooped out (lengthened) the back crotch curve by 1" (using my favourite BHL tutorial)
- after I basted my jeans together to check the fit (which I now do with every pair I make), I straightened out the front crotch curve seam a little bit, I eye-balled it, so I can't give you the exact measurement
Would I make this pattern again? I'm not 100% sure. I kind of want to try it in a different denim, and see if I can achieve a better fit, but I know that because John doesn't like the pattern, I probably won't wear them as often as my other pairs. That being said, it was really fun to sew, and the instructions were pretty good too. I had heard that they were originally quite sparse, but the girls at Named have updated them since the initial release. Plus the Indiesew sewalong is there for additional help too. The pdf was easy to put together and not very many pages. I did trace some of the pattern pieces as some of them over lap, but I just cut out the bigger pieces (like the legs).
I should also mention, I've paired these jeans with another Grail Top from Vesta Patterns. This one is made out of a stripey knit I bought at Fabricville in Montreal. Definitely not as nice as my other bamboo one, but still comfy!
Hope you all are having a nice weekend and that you aren't getting too sick of the jeans posts yet. ;)