Perfect Skinny Jeans

The Ginger Jeans have become a bit of a phenomenon in the sewing world but I have only just got round to making a pair of these indie favourites. I found the instructions excellent, very detailed with illustrations rather than photographs (a plus in my book) and there is also a very thorough free sewalong available on the Closet Case Patterns blog. This does feature detailed photographs if that’s what you prefer.

My measurements put me just slightly larger than the size 10 but I decided to go with the 10 as I didn’t want to have to do too much fitting on my first go and I figured stretch denim always gets looser with wear. I’m really pleased with the fit I didn’t need to alter them much at all other than tapering the side seam in at the knees and calves as I appear to have skinny knees (!) I also took 9cm off the length. I am 5’4″ so do often adjust the hem/length on patterns. I left off the back pockets until the very end as I wanted to check position and I ended up raising them by an inch as they were initially far too low on me. So I’m glad I did that. One of the bonuses of making your own clothes is being able to personalise them. I chose to let my inner Harry Potter fan come out and went to town on the patch pockets. There are lots of free templates for various pocket designs provided on the Closet Case Patterns blog (when you sign up to the newsletter) if you’re looking for inspiration.

Overall I’m really pleased with my first pair of proper jeans. They took me a while, as there were a lot of steps, but that was nice in a way as I did it in smaller chunks of sewing time. I really enjoyed the hardware side of things and adding in the button and rivets. I used Prym Vario Pliers for this and I would thoroughly recommend them. So easy!

This was my first Closet Case Pattern make and I’d definitely try another. The instructions are fab, the pattern is well drafted and I’d recommend this pattern to anyone looking for a “go to” pair of jeans.