Jeans and the contoured waistband

Let me start by saying that I'm fascinated with jeans.  I once had over 100 pair in my closet.  I now own 6 pair.  My husband has taught me about purging.  That being said.  I'm now fascinated w/ one or 2 really good fitting jeans.  I've worked on my jeans pattern for about a year now.  And as of last night finished a pair of jean shorts that have a few things to be perfected, but overall the fit is really good.  I  need to tweak the contoured waistband just slightly at this point.


The contoured waistband makes all the difference in fit.  I cut the waistband last.

Here's a some progression pictures of the stretch jean shorts:

 Precise topstitching……a must!!!! Take your time.  I have various size topstitching feet for my juki TL98E.

 I lined my pockets with a beautiful fabric I bought in singapore.

 Here's a great thing to note:  Iron up your hems before sewing the side seams.  It just makes the whole hemming process go faster.  It's easier to iron when everything is flat.  This ensures the both legs match.

 The fly front is the most important step.  If this does not look perfect you will have a homemade look instead of a RTW look.  I use Sandra Betzina's method without failure every time.

 Buy nice rivets of high quality to give it the finishing touch.  I also embroidered a small snowflake on the change pocket.  Topstitching must be precise as well.

Neue Mode Knit Dress

Another ITY Knit Dress.  This one was made using a free Neue Mode Pattern 23156:

The neck and armholes are done with facings.  I use a commercial grade 5 stitch cover machine to sew all my knits.  I used the singe needle chain stitch to finish this dress.  A double needle would have made it look to casual.  The back of the dress is ruched from the neck to the waist.