Disappointment

Dear readers, I am particularly grateful for the two sunny days we've had this week and all the pretty blooms around my neighborhood this week because it's helped me feel more optimistic about my current sewing project. I suffered a real disappointment with it this weekend. If you sew, I’m sure you’ve all been in this position at some point. I’ve been working on a pair of jeans for a couple of months now. I made two muslins to adjust the fit and got it looking pretty good. I’ve been working on my final version in actual denim, and by Sunday I was almost completed. I sewed on the waistband, topstitched, sewed on my belt loops and tried them on. The party ended there.

So, here’s a lesson, from me to you, in case you haven’t already learned it: try on your garment as you go along to make sure it’s fitting correctly. Obviously mine was not! Argh!

I tried them on and found that the waist was much too loose. As in, I could probably pull them off if I did a little shimmy while I pulled. Oh, no! This is the whole reason I was making these jeans! I have lost quite a bit of weight in the months after giving birth to my son, beyond my pre-pregnancy weight, and all of my jeans are much too loose. My jeans aren’t cheap to buy and I had some denim in my stash, so I decided to make a pair that fitted well instead of shelling out the excessive amount of money for new ones in retail. Since I pretty much live in jeans right now, I plan to wear these a lot and was really looking forward to completing them. So to have them fit almost the same as my current ones was quite a blow! Especially because I had been struggling with the waistband (more about that in a future post) and had already ripped out the seam and reattached it twice! If only I had tried on the pants before attaching the waistband, I could have taken in the side seams to correct the problem. I thought that since my muslin fit so well, I didn’t need to worry about it. Mistake! Ugh! Live and learn, I guess!

I have been trying to figure out why this happened and I’m still not sure. My muslin fit very well, but it was plain woven cotton and my denim has quite a bit of stretch. I’m not sure if that would account for the difference. I also tend to sew a little bit short of my seam allowance (for example, scant ½” on a ½” seam allowance), so I am not sure if that has contributed to the problem.

Either way, I am planning on taking off the waistband again and taking in my side seams through the thighs and waist. Since I have had so much trouble with the waistband, I’m planning to just cut out a new one to attach to the corrected pants. Though I was ready to chuck the whole thing when I realized what was going on! I’m thankful it is a relatively easy fix. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In other, much less frustrating news, I decided on my dress pattern! I went out and picked up the pattern for Vogue 8701 this weekend. I’m super excited to start on it and honestly getting a little impatient about it with all my jean-disappointment this weekend, but I’ve resolved to finish my jeans and then sew a pair of jean shorts before I tackle this dress. Oh, I’m anticipating it will be so much easier though! Plus, I’m just ready to move on to a new project. However, my stubbornness is going to work in my favor in this instance because I will finish these jeans!

I’ll get a little bit of a taste for something new, however, this weekend. I have a coupon for my local fabric store (they’re not as coupon-happy as Joann or Hancocks, but have nicer fabrics on the whole), so I am planning to visit this weekend and try to find a fabric for the dress. Should be fun!