Y’ALL. There are few things that i enjoy so completely as making jeans.

I love it. And I’ve been waiting since I last got pregnant to make a new pair (waiting out body changes, ya know). And now they’ve been made. And I am waiting with baited breath to make more!!

So. Anna Allen Philippa pants. Beautiful taper leg, mile high waist, straight outseam. Dreamy. I have a couple other non-stretch jeans patterns, the Palo by Named and the Morgan from Closet Case, but these seemed just ideal for my work wardrobe (not to mention other non-yoked pants suitable for jeans in the vintage pattern collection). There is plenty of denim in the stash hoping to be made up so the others have hope too.

The dream is to make these up again in tobacco coloured lightweight twill from Blackbird, and despite Anna Allen’s warnings to make a true muslin, this was meant to be a wearable muslin.

The denim here is wild cheap, found at the awesome magical hoarder fabric sale for less than $2 a meter, so not much lost on the cost side if it went horribly awry. But I really love the light-light blue of the wrong side, and wanted to make that up. Imagine! Somewhat ethically-sourced (ie secondhand) Light wash denim! (Thereby avoiding the stones or water or bleach or energy or time to make it that way)

I also really like a tight fit in the waist, so I figured the best way to get a true sense of fit would be to wear the dang jeans for a few days. And I’m not about to do that with a “true” muslin. So - I sized down everywhere from measurements, with a 6 waist graded to a 4 hip.

I was very careful in the cutting out of the denim, trying to worship the grainline and carefully cutting one piece out at a time. But dinner happened midway through, and I was chatting with a friend visiting from out of town and… despite marking on the pattern pieces what side I’d previously cut, I messed up. I think I must have flipped the fabric itself over in the taking it off the dinner table and putting it back again. So I ended up with two identical fronts and two identical backs… and didn’t notice until I was assembling the front pockets.

Which! Are Ginger jean pockets, traced onto Philippa. I kind of knew with the jeans being so high that front pockets weren’t going to get a lot of use, but I wanted them for a jean-y feel, and I like having the option. I also went with Ginger pocket stays, and rather than paying for the Philippa zipper fly extension, I just hacked on Ginger’s. The pocket stays are cut out of a muslin for my wrap romper, which was a thrift store bedsheet, and the floral is cuuute.

I started assembling the pockets before baste fitting, and it wasn’t until I had fully topstitched the second side that I realized something was extremely up. Like… oh… hmmm…. look how that pocket facing doesn’t actually match the jean leg because the jean leg is the darker blue I didn’t want to use! What’s going on? Oh no! I cut one out backwards!!

And here I thought I was just comparing whether I liked contrast topstitching with proper topstitching thread or doubled up light grey topstitching. Sigh. I figured I should just go ahead as cut out, and cut out the correct light grey legs after baste fitting. But then during baste fitting I decided the contrast looked extremely cute and fashion and that I should keep it and just do contrast back pockets too! And honestly, it feels like such a good look. As for the topstitching, I was leaning towards quiet grey, but my mom and my brother’s girlfriend both immediately voted contrast when asked, so I went with it. Also the right choice probably (Although I opted for the more subtle stitching on the inner leg)!

The fit was great off the hop, even with a weird basted in zipper to work with, and I ended up scooping the crotch curve probably 3/8”. I do find that with jeans fitting i end up in a weird space of staring at my crotch, thinking all the lines are weird and bad and I should get one of those rulers to measure the curve, but then I go look at people’s jeans on instagram and remember that some of them, even if they drive me nuts, are extremely normal. That said, I’ll take crotch curve fit tips!

In the same vein, I like tight jeans (as above) and I don’t wash them much (every couple months?), so I err on the side of horizontal draglines. I coult probably get away with a big more space for smoothness, but I do worry about bagging out and feeling uncomfortable in the other direction more.

Thanks to all the Ginger-fi-cation of the pants, I ended up mostly just using the Closet Case instructions/ jeans class rather than Anna Allen’s. Which looked good, but, priorities.

As I said at the top, sewing up jeans is just so much fun. I’m pleased with it all, even the mistakes. The fly has a bit of unusual topstitching since I placed my first line a little close to the zip for comfort, so I had them cross. Super cute!

Gotta say the pocket placement on these as defined in the pattern was spot on for me, which was so nice! It’s like my non-hips/butt have shape - I LOVE THESE PANTS!

I did forget to put on belt loops and… I lost my rotary cutter washer in the interim, and I just don’t want to cut out a long perfectly straight piece with scissors NOR have I convinced myself to bite the bullet and replace the whole damn cutter, since shouldn’t the washer just be replaceable? So I’m waiting on adding belt loops.

I would also like to add some length to the next pair - actually just at the hem because I could even stand a touch of a smaller leg hole - as this pair is just a single 1 cm turn-over and are still a little shorter than I’d like.

My biggest frustration here is with my jeans button placement. I don’t know why but I always seem to get it just wrong enough that the fly just keeps gaping open. I’d really really like to fix it, but I’m worried that moving the button might not be strong enough what with the hole the first one would leave, especially since we’re talking less than a cm. Alternatively, I cut sew up the center edge of the buttonhole and cut it a bit more to allow for the button the other way, but I’m also a bit scared of that plan. Tips welcome!

And maybe a sturdier waistband? I did interface but I feel like it crumples a little, which checks out as you know, the waist is a big moving point on the body. Anyway. Something to consider.

Pattern: Anna Allen Philippa Pants
Fabric: non-stretch denim from a garage sale
My Measurements: 30.5 waist, 38.5 hip, 22 thigh, 15.5 knee, 14 calf
Size made: 6 waist, 4 hip.
Adjustments: Scooped crotch curve
Next time: Need to add length - 2 inches? Be careful with jeans button placement. Might wanna take 2cm out of upper back for sway back type bunching. Might add back 1/4 inch on front pieces across hip. Chill about the crotch, unless you can’t….