Sewing The Seventies – Hippy Jeans

April 10, 2017 by steelyseamstress 15 Comments

I’m finally writing this post even though I finished my jeans a while back and worn them loads. I had a horrendous week of flu / cold. The weather has been really warm and it feels so odd feeling ill and indeed sunbathing whilst blowing my nose every thirty seconds!

Anyway, on with the jeans. I did a lot of measuring and fitting and re-fitting. I found this post here a very good explanation when it comes to understanding crotch seam shape.

I didn’t just alter the shape and shorten crotch, because that would have distorted the alignment of the front pattern piece and caused the front pieces to be longer than the back pieces. Fortunately, there was so much fabric in this area, that I was able to completely remodel the crotch seam – make it flatter or less curved and also shorter, which seems to suit my body shape. I think it is possible to see the original seam allowance line in the photo below (in pencil) compared to the new seam allowance line (in red)

Making buttonholes has always been one of my least favourite things. I think it is because you need to cut into the fabric and there is no going back if you make a mistake. (So, I check and double-check that I’m putting those buttonholes on the correct side of my jeans!). However, I think hammering the buttons into the jeans has now surpassed my fear of buttonhole-making. I dread to think how difficult it would be to get them out if a mistake was made and whether it would be possible to save the jeans from a very radical remodeling (or massive tantrum, for that matter!) if a mistake had been made. Anyway, I did manage to hammer the jeans buttons in and I think they look fantastic. They really do make my jeans look professional.

The waistband was a bit of a pain. This was simply because I hadn’t managed to translate my waistline adjustment on my front and back trouser pieces properly to the front and back facings and I spent a good deal of head-scratching trying to work out where I had gone wrong. It didn’t help that the instructions were rather confusing too at this point. I did make one small change which I like to my facings. Rather than just finish the facings by making a standard hem, I finished mine with some bias binding. Even the inside of my jeans looks cool now! Thought about taking another photo of this, but it’s getting late now and the light has gone…..perhaps another day.

Bad pose, but I was in a silly mood!

Final comments on my jeans – wow these are comfy! I am been wearing them non-stop for a week. Yes, seriously, I think they may have to be prised off me to go in the wash. I would definitely like to make another pair, although these did take several weeks to make.