Jolly Jalie Jeans

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Not sure why I made jeans when I haven’t owned a pair that fit me for several years. Or perhaps the answer is there straight away. These aren’t the most exciting design-wise but for me they are a big shift in thinking about what I can do, and the value of pattern blocks/ basic patterns tweaked to fit.

Finding the write-ups of various patterns on PatternReview together with photos of all sorts of body shapes helped me narrow down the pattern choice to Jalie 2908. I worked with some stretch denim I picked up at The Fabric Store earlier in the year. I had thought of doing a muslin but couldn’t find fabric of a similar weight/stretch for less than I paid for this denim, so cut into the denim with an extra 20mm on all seam allowances on the legs and waist as a precaution.

I overlaid the jeans pattern with my adapted Clover trouser pattern to find the curves down to hip line were a near-on perfect match.

(L) Back (R) Front - Jalie 2908 on top (lines), adapted Clovers under

So I cut my fabric and crossed my fingers and ended up with a pair of jeans that fit me well and I am stupidly proud of. I did end up adding a bit more width at Centre Front, and in the thighs but pretty negligible compared to the tweaks I had to do first time around with the Clovers. Putting in the work in October last year paid off this past weekend.

The most fun? Well, besides putting them on and grinning? Hammering in the rivets. It was impressive the difference this little feature made. It shifted them to another level of polish I think for a standard yellow topstitched pair. They felt finished when I did the rivets. Thank you to Melissa of FehrTrade for her rivet tips including clipping the height of the nail part.

There is a bit of excess fabric at the back of the knee/lower thigh that I am sure could be dealt with.Tips anyone?

But overall, for a first pair of stretch denim jeans I am very pleased. No gaping at the back of the waist, no half metre of fabric to take off the hem, enough fabric to cover my thighs. Make again – sure thing. Also Zac asked if I could buy heavier/ regular denim to make him a pair to his specs. What a compliment from a 19 year old son!

Yeah right, the world needs more pictures like this

I'd run out of charming smiles by this stage

6 thoughts on “Jolly Jalie Jeans”

  2. Congratultions on your jeans, they fit very well and the Jalie pattern is such a great fit. You might want to try The Remnant Warehouse in Alexandria, for more substantial denim. This is where I got the white demin (remnant) for my jeans I made and it is a heavy stretch denim and I purchased some cream stretch denim the other month in the same weight. Much more substantial that then navy demin that I purcahsed from Spotlight.

    • I’ve heard great things about the Remnant Warehouse, thanks for the tip on their denim. I’ll have to add them to my Sydney list next time I visit.

  3. I just got myself that pattern too based purely on all the gushing reviews I’ve read but haven’t had a chance to make it up yet. I like how you compared it to an already well-fitting pattern, great idea, I am totally going to copy you when the time comes ;) Love the pocket detail stitching too.

    I nominated you for the Leibster blog award btw – Not sure if you are into blog awards so feel free to accept or ignore, I won’t be offended :)
    http://thecuriouskiwi.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/manequim-633-feb-2012-and-smiles/