One of my most enjoyable sewing is making jeans. there are so many things that I can love from a pair of handmade jeans. I love the feeling of crisp denim fabric. I love cutting them and putting all the details into a pair of jeans. And when they are finished, I love watching them aged.
After several years, they can look completely different from when they are fresh out of under the sewing machine. A pair of new and crisp jeans slowly turned into a soft and comfortable pair of jeans. The colour is fading, but it only adds character to the jeans. Worn marks are appearing, sometimes there are holes on pocket where wallet and keys are usually kept. Every pair of jeans show a little side of their wearer.
Here is several of my handmade jeans that get worn most.
Men’s jeans, 2011.
Non-selvedge denim. Pattern is Pumila Men’s Jeans (Japanese pattern, no longer available).
My first handmade jeans. This is how it all started. I didn’t have an overlocker at that time, so the raw edges are finished with zigzag stitches on ordinary sewing machine.
2013, 2 years after.
Pocket linings have been changed (2014).
Crotch and pocket holes repaired (2015).
2016, 5 years after.
Men’s jeans, 2013.
Non-selvedge denim with striped texture. Pattern is Kwik Sew 3504 view B, size M.
2016, 3 years after.
Color has faded, making the striped texture more prominent. Holes on pocket and crotch need to be repaired.
Men’s Selvedge jeans, 2014.
Selvedge denim. Jeans pattern is Mens’s jeans FOP-07 by Full of Patterns (Japanese), size L.
2016, 2 years after.
The denim fabric was quite crisp and hard when it was new. it has now turned softer and more comfortable.
Women’s pleated pants, 2012.
Soft corduroy fabric. Pattern is Evan by Tamanegi Kobo (Japanese PDF pattern), size 38 on waist and 36 on hip.
2016, 4 years after.
Not much worn marks, except for slightly faded knees.
Women’s jeans, 2014.
Stretch denim. Pattern is Sandra narrow leg jeans by Style Arc, size 6. Waistband has wide elastic in it.
2016, 2 years after.
My most comfortable and most worn item. The colour has faded and one knee has hole.
Women’s boyfriend jeans, 2014.
Light-colored denim with no stretch. Pattern is Wyome jeans from Named patterns (PDF), size 36.
2016, 2 years after.
I didn’t wear them so much at first because somehow the light colour felt too massive to me. Last year I decided to take a cutter and seam ripper and started heavily distressing them. Now I wear them a lot.
Women’s jeans, 2015.
Dark denim with no stretch. Pattern is Sandra narrow leg jeans by Style Arc, size 6. Wider waistband to accomodate two front buttons.
2016, 1 year after.
Another basic favourite.
As you can see the aging of my husband’s jeans is much more interesting than mine. I think it is normal as he wears the jeans on rotation almost everyday while I have many other options to wear.
There are some jeans that I have made that are not included here. Sometimes it is because they don’t fit anymore, more often it is because they don’t get worn so much. I have also made jeans for Sidra, but they never have the chance to age at all because Sidra is aging in much faster rate than the jeans!
