Very NOLA Ginger Jeans

I was dragging my feet to make my second pair of Ginger Jeans even though I was over the moon after making my first pair. Sneaking jeans into my mental sewing queue was always in the back of my mind, but let’s face it, we tend to procrastinate on those projects which take a LOT of time and energy. So Ginger #2s had to wait…

…until Heather from Closet Case Patterns came out with her “Sew Your Dream Jeans” online course early this year! I immediately jumped on board and was stoked that the class came with the mid-rise Ginger Jeans pattern. I think that’s why I was dragging my feet on the second pair initially – I had a copy of the older Ginger Jeans pattern (either high or low rise, plus pre-pocket stay and back leg ease revision) and I wanted a mid-rise pair next, so some drafting work had to be done on my part. And truth be told:

I was also very excited to learn from the course about what changes I needed to make to the pattern in order to get a fit that’s perfect for my body. I learned about the full seat adjustment (AKA big booty adjustment) and how to prevent that bulk around the crotch I got with my first pair.

For the full seat adjustment, all I needed to do was add a 1-inch wedge to the back leg, like so:

And to fix the crotch issue, I took in 1/4 inch from the front crotch point:

I also took a note from the lessons learned with my first pair and curved the waistband and back yokes:

I think these tweaks worked pretty well! What do you think?

I made the mid-rise skinny jeans. It’s funny… when the skinny jeans trend started (like 9 years ago??), I was super against it. But I understood the need to have at least 1 pair in your closet for easily tucking into your winter boots. The more I saw people wearing skinny jeans, the more my brain accepted them and I started buying my own. But most RTW jeans have stretch with poor recovery, so the waist and knees would bag out after the first day. ANNOYING.

The great thing about making your own skinny jeans is YOU have control over the quality of your fabric! For this pair, I bought Cone Mills S-Gene Denim from Threadbare Fabrics. The S-Gene technology is supposed to prevent that annoying bagging and let me tell you, it works!

I went down a size from my last pair and cut a straight size 10 this time. No, I didn’t lose any weight… I figured my denim had enough stretch and Heather suggests to go down a size if you’re in between choosing sizes. The only adjustment I made while sewing these was to use a 3/8 inch seam allowance on the hips rather than the suggested 5/8 inch. It helped take away some of those crotch pulling lines you can see in my basted test fit.

I have to admit, the calves are a little tight and I need to watch my circulation when I’m sitting for long periods of time. I wore these 2 days in a row so far and that S-Gene technology is no joke! I thought it would bag a little, but these suckers are strong! It’s not uncomfortable enough for me not to wear these (unthinkable!), but I think next time I’ll just sew with a 3/8 inch seam allowance all the way down to give my legs a little breathing room.

I’ve got a lot more to say about my jeans, but I’m going to take an intermission to talk about my t-shirt!

My very good friend back in New Orleans is winning at life and opened a shop on Threadless.com that features her very own New Orleans (AKA NOLA) designs on t-shirts, cell phone covers, notebooks, bags, etc.! She has a ton of cute designs and she is now selling her spring/festival designs. If you have a love for NOLA, go check out Tattycake now!

The 3 most beautiful colors together – Mardi Gras represent!

And since I love to represent the Big Easy, I went with a Fleur de Lis design on the back pockets of my Gingers!

If you’ve been following me on IG, you’ll know about the back pocket struggle I was facing. I initially wanted to pay homage to one of my favorite anime, Sailor Moon, and knock-off the Sailor Moon x Gu jeans that are on sale in Japan now. After hand-embroidering the design, then realizing it didn’t quite read SM, I added pink embroidery thread after a suggestion from Katryna. It was a wonderful suggestion but I went overboard and stitched pink thread throughout the whole thing, which ended up being overkill. I then ripped it out and only added the pink to the circles and the stars… and it ended up looking like bulls-eyes on my butt!

The Fleurs toned it down a bit, so I went with those instead. But I haven’t given up on those SM pockets! I put way too much time and energy into those, so I’m going to use them on some super Sailor Moon jean shorts I have planned! I think adding more embroidery all around will help keep the eye from going straight to the “bulls-eye.”

So here’s the finished product!

Some of my top-stitching got a little funky on the back pockets, but I tuned into Heather’s words of wisdom and I put the seam ripper down. As she said, if someone is looking at the top-stitching on your jeans that closely, you have more problems than just wonky top-stitching.

I didn’t bother hand-embroidering the Fleur de Lis on the pockets… I simply traced a design I drew (ahem, copied from the internet) onto the pockets and slowly “drew” it with my machine thread. I’m liking this design and might use it on future jeans!

I put the back pockets right where the pattern suggested and I think it’s pretty flattering. I think the older Ginger pattern might have had them lower… my first Gingers have pretty low back pockets and I wish I would have eked them up a bit more. Oh, well. No one is looking at my butt that closely… I hope…

Curving the waistband and back yokes worked wonders! No gaping waist! It’s so easy to do, I wonder why most RTW jeans don’t incorporate that? Most women I know have the same gaping issue. HELLO, RETAILERS! WOMEN HAVE CURVES!

My crotch adjustment worked well enough but I think I can shave a little more off for the next pair. Notice I added 2 bar tacks on the fly front curve… it’s supposed to just be one but I messed up the top-stitching on the curve. Thank goodness for bar tacks to cover it up!

Instead of facing the waistband with quilting cotton, I opted for denim. I wanted more give in the waistband than my previous pair and… well… I ran out of this beautiful quilting cotton I used for the pocket stays…

I had just enough of this cotton left over from my Vogue peplum top. I am so in love with this fabric and I am super happy I get to enjoy its beauty every time I pull on these jeans.

I am super stoked I have another pair of jeans that are me-made! I can’t contain my excitement any longer:

And since I have an awesome NOLA shirt and awesome Fleur de Lis booty pockets, I had to bust out the Mardi Gras beads and celebrate in true NOLA fashion (minus the booze):

So if you were on the fence about Heather’s online class, IT’S WORTH IT! Now excuse me while I continue to celebrate and shop for more Tattycake merchandise!

-RED

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