Saturday 22 September 2012

Jeans

There hasn't been too much happening in the sewing room this week, so I thought I'd show you some of the jeans I've been cranking out over the summer and never really blogged about and present you with a dilemma over my proposed leather trousers/pants. Read on

I took Kenneth D King's Jeanius online course earlier this year; I managed to snag it at a bargain price. You can buy access from all sorts of sites, I got mine via Craftsy.

It is a rub off method for copying your favourite pair of RTW jeans. The process of actually getting the pattern, while involved, taught me lots about pattern drafting and I even bought new tools and gadgets to make the job easier. Once the pattern is drafted it is ready to use. I have made four pairs of jeans from the one pattern - each pair a little different from the last but the fit is getting better and better every time. It is interesting to see how different fabrics, especially those with a bit stretch, sew up differently from each other so there's always a bit of tweaking involved somewhere along the line.

I can sew the crotch area without worry. I've almost mastered the fly zip. Topstitching is still a bit wobbly and back pocket placement is somewhat random..... but I'm getting there.

No. 1
A very non-stretch creamy moleskin type of fabric. Lots of faults but making these highlighted what areas need to be adjusted.

No. 2 Grey denim with a slight stretch. I wear this pair A LOT. Here they are hanging on the washing line alongside teenage son's.



No. 3 The fabric is the unbleached cotton twill from Raystitch purchased ages ago and I finally got round to putting it to good use. The jeans are a little 'heavy' - good for autumn/winter wearing though. When I'm not in the grey jeans I'm in these.


No 4 Finally and most recently the pleather pair. With these I straightened the legs and are my muslin for the real leather pair that I shall make one day when the world is perfect.



I've done a bit of serious research about leather this week and have found out this -
Garment weight leather comes in thicknesses of 0.6-0.9mm. Any thinner and it may tear, heavier thicknesses ( 1.2 - 1.5 cm) are used for biker jackets and really thick hides are used for shoes.

Leather is sold in hides by the square foot. There is a fairly simple calculation to convert yards/metres to sq ft. which means you can in theory make any pattern in leather. This is taken from Vogue Sewing Book, page 359 - the answer to my query was on my bookshelves all along! There are 13 sq ft to one yard of 150cm wide fabric. I need 1.8m or 2 metres to make life easy of fabric for these jeans

Metres = 2
multiply by 13 = 26

Multiply 26 by 0.15 for piecing allowance = 3.9. Even go to 0.2 to be on the safe side

26 + 3.9 = 29.9

So I need to acquire 30 sq ft of leather at 0.6- - 0.9mm thick for a pair of leather jeans.

Seems simple enough and so I went trawling the net for UK suppliers of leather hides almost ready to buy a traditional black or dark brown and this is when the next dilemma occurred. There is just too much choice! All the colours of the rainbow; pigskin, goatskin, calfskin, cowskin; leather, nappa, suede; smooth finish, mottled finish, embossed finished, metallic, patent and on and on.

So opinions please.... plain black or brown or a colour?


I'll get more wear from a neutral colour but I am tempted.....

Thanks to all of you who offered advice, hints and showcased your own leather sewing projects in the last post. As always, I appreciate your expertise and encouragement.

I've also just noticed, when the photos of jeans construction are placed in chronological order my hair gets shorter and shorter!

22 comments:

  1. Your jeans look great - really good fit and I love the bootcut shape on you! I'm with you on how the stretch material changes the jeans - it depends so much on how much stretch is in the material and sometimes you have to wear them awhile to work it out!
    The leather pants look really interesting and I can't wait to watch you make them!

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    1. Suzy, I like boot cut shape I think it balances the hips against the lower legs. But I love wearing wide legged too, like yours. Most of my work wear trousers are wide legged.

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  2. I love that you just keep improving them- I know this will sound crazy from me, but a nice brown or black would be a nice neutral that you'd never stop wearing....

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    1. Shame there's no leather in paisley patterns

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  3. That's funny about the hair - i even scrolled back to see again ) about the color for leather, i suggest Any gray, I think it would complement ur wardrobe well. Black seems A little too hardcore to me - but this is just a personal opinion- you should choose what makes you feel best!

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    1. I'd never even thought of grey! I am concerned like you about black being the 'expected' thing.

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  4. I kind of agree with Marina. Black is "biker chick", but that may be a fun personae for you to try. Gray would probably be more in the look and less edgy. Brown is always nice. I have similar coloring to you and wear it a lot. My skins are a dark chocolate brown. You're making me long for more time to sew! My hair is really short now and I love it. 1/2 hour less getting ready time in the morning is definitely my style!
    Looking forward to seeing your new pants!

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    1. More like biker old woman! I love my short hair too, so easy.

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  5. I think that Marina's grey dea is an intriguing one. I hadn't considered it, but I like it!
    Please do tell us about the leather suppliers you have found. I don't have any UK sources.

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    1. Karin so far it's:
      http://www.leprevo.co.uk/ - I think this may the one I'll use
      http://www.leather-hides.co.uk/leather_hide_uk_ltd_040.htm - but seem to do 1.1mm thick only. I haven't searched through the entire site though.
      http://www.pittardsleather.co.uk/category/leather-skins-and-hides/29/0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0/1 - small hides only it seems

      By buying in the UK I won't have to pay customs but I'm going to keeping searching for a European supplier.

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  6. I bought some nice suede from Tandy http://www.tandyleatherfactory.co.uk/ you could try them.

    Your jeans look great - I am itching to get sewing on some jeans - need to push it up my list. Good luck with the leather - I too like the idea of grey.

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    1. Thanks Pauline - another good source. Hope you had a successful day's shopping!

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  7. Wow, your jeans are very impressive! Good luck with the leather.

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  8. Your jeans are fabulous. Great job. I can tell you that once you start sewing with leather, it can become a bit addictive. At one point, I think that almost my entire wardrobe was leather.

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  9. Thanks for this very useful post. Leather is apparenty very in. This was in one of yesterday's papers and has info on leather thickness/wearability. http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2012/sep/21/how-to-dress-leather

    As for the black/brown/colour dilemma: I think brown wins in that it's sexy but practical and judging by the number of people who check in on my site just cause I once mentioned Saga's, there's a quiet obsession with brown leather jeans going on.

    Whatever you do, good luck and.... I'll be jealous!!

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    1. Thanks Marianna - good link. You mean I'm on trend???

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  10. Thanks to Ann, I've found your blog! And wowsers! What a great set of jeans. Clio just wrote about her Jean-ius experience, and I'm really tempted to take that course, too, if only to learn as much as you did about drafting. As for the leather, I have one pair of leather pants. And they're CHRISTMAS RED. Yup. In caps. And I love them. I have a lot of browns and neutral pants, but the red leather pants are a winner. Just a thought!

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  11. Thanks to Ann, I've found your blog! And wowsers! What a great set of jeans. Clio just wrote about her Jean-ius experience, and I'm really tempted to take that course, too, if only to learn as much as you did about drafting. As for the leather, I have one pair of leather pants. And they're CHRISTMAS RED. Yup. In caps. And I love them. I have a lot of browns and neutral pants, but the red leather pants are a winner. Just a thought!

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    1. Thanks Tia - and you said it twice - wonderful! Red - your leathers sound fantastic. Tell me, are you a very outgoing and bubbly person? I always think 'red' says "I'm confident". I suppose if you go for leather why not go all out huh?

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  12. Your jeans all look great. I'll keep an eye out for your leather version too. Very clever!

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    1. Hopefully not too long now - a little secret - go to the next post......Shhhhh

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  13. The jeans look great. I'm glad you stated the difference between real life and the magazine photos of clothes. I think there is a misconception about how clothes really look and wear on the body of people who eat and have curves. Your approach to fitting jeans is perfect. Visit Skull Jeans

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