• Name: Vanellope Von Schweetz (from Wreck-It-Ralph)
• Pattern: Ginger jeans from Closet Case Files
• Fabric: Brushed stretch twill from Stoff & Stil [out of stock]

Let me start with giving you the timeline . Heather Lou’s pattern debut was on October 23rd 2014, yes 2014! I purchased the pattern on November 9th fairly confident that I would make myself a pair of trousers in the near future. That winter and the following year I was only wearing dresses and some skirts , so the need for trousers wasn’t that high. I only wore tights with the dresses if it was ever cold.

The beginning of this year I wanted to try to sew me a pair. I’ve had the pattern for quite some time, but the fear of starting on trousers scared the hell out of me. All the money going in on fabric that looked and felt like denim (which not all that cheaper..) , all the adjustments to find the perfect fit for my tricky butt, and not to talk about the time it took doing all this.

My first pair of jeans was this. I started out with the right measurements and graded the seam from my waist out to the sizes that was suppose to fit my hips. I had also shorten the legs because I’m short and always have a bundle of fabric on the jeggings I wear. As you can see very clearly that my hips was not the problem. This pants had massive overflowing hips that was no where near my actual hips. It’s too big around the crotch, thighs, knees and legs. OK, so now I know that the jeans need more depth for my butt, rather than out on my hips.

The next pair of pants was made 6 months later. Yes, it took me that long to muster up the courage to try it again from scratch. Where will I begin? What was my hip size not that my perimeter showed the size I used for the first pants? I figured that I would only try to go up one size from my waist to my hips, and do a full butt adjustment. I adjusted the jeans to make 2 cm fuller butt. I didn’t shorten the length by as much as I did last time because that was a bit too short. Voila, look at that!

Not that that was done I was happy, but I didn’t finish it before a week later. I tried it on again, why didn’t I see this before? Yeah, I defiantly need a full tummy adjustment as well. Again the jeans went into the WIP pile.

I got new jogging shoes from my parents that is better for my feet because I need special overpronator jogging shoes. At first I need to wear them as much as possible for my feet to adjust right, so I couldn’t walk around in my normal shoes (aka heels). And if you didn’t know jogging shoes do not go with pretty dresses… So I wore my tights and jeggings, they’re all RTW clothes. Not only that, but I also wore RTW tops, jumpers and so on. I felt betrayed by myself. The feeling of not owning handmade trousers gnawed on me. Then the push I need came. It was the beautiful Safran pants from Deer and Doe, so I rushed and bought the pattern along with the Datura blouse. I didn’t have the heart of leaving the Ginger jeans pattern, so i did the last try and hoping for the best.

Now it fits, until I cant find something else wrong with it. The journey has been long, but now I finally have a pattern for making jeans! I’m so happy I could cry. So now I have to sew up a lot of trousers along with tops/blouses to wear with my jogging shoes. Wish me even more luck!

After three pair of jeans it finally happened. Even though I got a lot of the fabric going out of stock on sale to try it I even have enough to make a muslin pair of Safran trousers as well! This pair of jeans is oping a lot of doors for me, it’s the president of all jeans for me now.

Sophie Bach Meuche