For my dressmaking course I have to practice a lot. Preferably not just with clothes for myself, but also for others, so that I can practice drafting for different body shapes and sizes. Coincidentally, during a chat with my friend, it came up that she needed a new pair of jeans. That was ideal, because one of my exam assignments is to make a pair of jeans for myself, and since I had never made one before, not even from a ready-made pattern, I could certainly use the practice.
So I took her measurements and we went fabric shopping together. Then I got to work.
There were some issues with the fit, but in the end I managed to fix most of them, and I learned a lot from this project!
Despite the various points for improvement, it really does look like a pair of jeans! It even has those metal details on the pockets. Topstitching makes such a big difference! You really start looking closely at the details of your own clothes, and there are so many choices you have to make, just regarding which parts to topstitch and which not, whether to double topstitch or not, whether to use contrasting thread or not…
My friend was also surprised by how different trousers actually are at a detail level when I asked her what she wanted and pulled out some sample trousers from my wardrobe to illustrate. (Fortunately, it was her preference to have only a limited number of parts topstitched, which saved me a lot of time.)
My friend is happy – she tells me she gets quite a lot of compliments when she wears the jeans. It’s not a very special design, so that shows how much a good fit can do for you.
I now have much more confidence that I should be able to produce a good pair of jeans for my exam!
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