Sew your own designer jeans!

Step One: Find yourself a pattern with tons of interesting details. In my case, I’ve used pattern #7a from the December 2008 issue of KnipMode magazine.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Burda, but when’s the last time you saw one of their trouser patterns with anywhere near this much detail?? KnipMode are by far my best source for interesting trouser patterns in the last year or so!

Step Two: Find some ex-designer denim like this black stretch denim from Ditto Fabrics in Brighton (50% Cotton 45% Polyester 5% Elastane) from “one of the Italian designers”. It’s listed as black, but when it’s held up to black, it looks blue, and when held up to navy it looks black. Whatever the colour, it’s seriously the nicest stretch denim I’ve ever come across, and it’s really similar to the weave you find in RTW jeans.

Step Three: Sew!

Step One: Find yourself a pattern with tons of interesting details. In my case, I’ve used pattern #7a from the December 2008 issue of KnipMode magazine.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Burda, but when’s the last time you saw one of their trouser patterns with anywhere near this much detail?? KnipMode are by far my best source for interesting trouser patterns in the last year or so!

Step Two: Find some ex-designer denim like this black stretch denim from Ditto Fabrics in Brighton (50% Cotton 45% Polyester 5% Elastane) from “one of the Italian designers”. It’s listed as black, but when it’s held up to black, it looks blue, and when held up to navy it looks black. Whatever the colour, it’s seriously the nicest stretch denim I’ve ever come across, and it’s really similar to the weave you find in RTW jeans.

Step Three: Sew!

In addition to getting a good look at my white girl pancake butt here, you can also really see the twisted side seam – the back leg pieces are much wider than the front so the side seams curve around to the front. I’ve double topstitched the inseam and the outer seam on these to emphasize the twisted seams on this pair, too (normally I’d just topstitch the inseam like RTW jeans).

Here’s a good look at the front, with its yoke and stitched pocket details (and yes, I did use a fun rainbow pocket lining as per usual!

And here’s a shot of the back, with that extra long centre back belt loop that comes down to enclose the horizontal belted tab. And my swirly back pocket design, of course!

I really liked that the inner corner of the back pockets is curved, and the outer a sharp point, but this means it was a little tricker than normal to look good. So I copied the pocket pattern onto a piece of cardboard from the recycling bin (a piece of cat food box, ha!), and then laid this onto the wrong side of the fabric and just folded the seam allowances around the cardboard as I pressed. It meant that both pocket pieces were identical, and getting that rounded corner was suddenly really, really easy!

Once again, I set up my little red machine in navy thread, and my main vintage machine in gold topstitching thread to save myself the hassle of changing threads every 30 seconds (the worst thing about sewing jeans IMHO!). The only technically tricky bit here was topstitching the outer seam since the entire leg bunches up onto the sewing machine’s free arm (and repeat that three more times!), but it wasn’t anywhere near as fiddly as the curved back seam on my KnipMode boyfriend jeans (which I wear ALL. THE. TIME!).

This pink wig is the last in my collection, I’m afraid. It’s the only one that doesn’t have a fringe (bangs) so it tends to blow in my face a bit, but it’s worth it to become a total superstar to every little girl under the age of ten. It’s so funny, I get so many “hey lady I like your pink hair” compliments and Stephanie comparisons whenever I wear this!

And to reveal my source, I bought all six wigs from the Hong Kong-based eBay seller Wig Fashion. I highly, highly recomend both the seller and the wigs themselves if you fancy a bit of fun or know anyone else going through chemo who doesn’t want some ratty Golden Girls mop on their head (seriously, you search for wigs online and the selection is dire). These are all really nice cuts, with lace inside and lingerie elastic and hooks to adjust them to your head size, too.

(The black draped top is a recent acquisition from ASOS.com, btw)

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