DIY: Refashion Jeans with Trim

DIY: Refashion Jeans with Trim

Refashion Jeans with Trim 

You might have noticed some of the fashions of the late 60’s and 70’s making a comeback on the store shelves, from floral fabrics to embellished jeans. How about adding crocheted ribbon trim along the outside leg!  This is so easy!!!

Supplies:

  • Jeans
  • Measuring tape
  • Pins
  • Ribbon or trim (check that the trim is washable)

PREPPING

  1. Measure the outside of the jean leg from the bottom edge of the waistband to the hem.

2. Add 6 inches to the outside leg measurement and cut 2 pieces of trim that exact length.

3. Starting at the edge of the waistband, center the trim with the outside leg seam. Fold under the raw edge of the trim about ½” and pin.

4. Continue to pin the trim along the outside leg seam. Be sure to look for metal rivets or other hardware! Here I have a rive and I will make sure to mark this spot as to not break the sewing machine needle.

5. Pin the ribbon/ trim all the way to the hemline. If you plan on folding up the jeans, measure 4 inches below the hemline and cut the trim.  If you are not going to fold up the jean hem, measure 2 inches and cut off any excess ribbon.

6. Turn the jeans inside out. Center the ribbon on the seam allowance, fold under the raw edge ½” and pin in place.

7. Follow these steps on both outside leg seams.

 

SEWING

Depending on the style and size of the jeans, it can be challenging sewing all the way down to the narrow hemline.  To make is easier we are going to utilize the sewing sideways feature!

8. Set up the machine for sewing a straight stitch and move the needle all the way to the far-right position. Slide the jeans under the foot starting at the waistline. To read the full blog post, head over to my post as a Brother Expert Consultant on the Brother Stitching Social.

Looking for more ideas on refashioning jeans, check out my blog post on embellishing jeans with embroidery.Be sure to share photos on the social side #angelawolf – I always love to see what you are working on!

Cheers,

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EMBELLISHING JEANS WITH FREE MOTION EMBROIDERY

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Embellishing Jeans with Free Motion Embroidery

An easy way to restyle or upcycle jeans is to add a touch of embroidery.  Free motion embroidery, also referred to as thread painting, is so easy and you don’t even need an embroidery machine for this technique.  Instead we are going to use free motion quilting / embroidery techniques.

Supplies Needed:

  • Jeans
  • Medium Weight Tear-away Stabilizer
  • Any type of thread (all-purpose, rayon, embroidery, silk, cotton)
  • Embroidery Hoop
  • Fabric marking pen or chalk
  • Open toe quilting foot

Layout the Design

Try on the jeans and determine where you want the embellishment to go.  A few things to keep in mind:

Don’t place the embroidery:

    • too close to the zipper
    • on top of thick seams
    • over thick pockets
    • on top of metal rivets
    • Too far down the leg (remember you need to get to the area to stitch J)

Good places for the embroidery:

  • Above the hemline
  • Along the back yoke (avoiding the center back seam)
  • Front hip
  • Waistband

Choose a hoop size that can easily fit into the jean pant leg and large enough for the design you have in mind.  Using tailors chalk, mark the placement for the design.

Draw a design with a fabric pen.

Hooping the Jeans

Slide the stabilizer into the jeans leg behind the design area.  My design is close to the front pocket, so I will pull the pocket lining out of the hooping area.

Align the smaller inside hoop on the outside of the jean leg with the larger hoop and stabilizer inside the jeans leg.

Push the hoop closed, encasing the jean fabric and stabilizer, and tighten the screw on the hoop.

Free Motion Embroidery

Set the sewing machine up for free motion quilting and slide the hoop under the presser foot, making sure to keep the back of the jean leg out of the way.  We only want the fabric in the hoop under the needle on the machine.

Start in the middle of the design and fill in the design with thread.

Here I have outlined the design first. Then fill in the petals by moving the machine back and forth with thread.  This is your design, so don’t worry about perfection, just have fun!  Continue to change colors of thread and paint away J

When you are all finished designing, remove the hoop and tear-a-way the stabilizer.

You can see here how my design falls just under the front pocket, perfect! Brush off the chalk marks and your new embellished jeans are ready to go!  Be sure to join me on the social side using #angelawolf ♥ I always love to see what you are working on.

Cheers,

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Sewing Pattern Alterations – Fitting a Jean Pattern for a Round Stomach

Sewing Pattern Alterations – Fitting a Jean Pattern for a Round Stomach

Sewing jeans are really easy once you get the hang of the process, but fitting the pattern can be challenging. The next few posts are going to deal with exactly that, fitting various body shapes. This pattern alteration is needed if you have a fuller stomach, in the old days referred to as an apple shape.  Although, I am not sure where the fruit terms originated from, I really don’t like them.  I would rather be a glass!  Wine glass, red wine glass, martini glass, goblet, water-glass,  I think you get the idea.  It just sounds a little more glamorous than an apple or pear 🙂    Anyway, if you made up a jean muslin and the pattern fit great in the legs, hips, and tush, but you just can’t get that center front closed … here you go:

Fitting a Jean Pattern for a Round Stomach

1.  Tape the front pocket in place.  Start by drawing lines on your pattern (don’t cut yet):

  • Draw a line (green) across the hip and up to the tip of the side seam.
  • Draw 2 lines (purple) perpendicular to the green line,

Angela Wolf Pattern Alteration 12.   Cut along the green line, cutting up to the side seam put NOT through the edge.

Angela Wolf Pattern Alteration 2

3.  Slide the pattern open.  Look what happens, you just gave a little more room in the front tummy area in the width and height of the pattern.

Angela Wolf Pattern Alteration 3

4.  The upper waist curve is too extreme if left like this.  Cut each purple line, down to the green line, but NOT through it.  Slide each line open until the waist curve angles down more like the original pattern.

belt loop30

5.  Redraw a new waistline and center front crotch curve (red line).

Angela Wolf Pattern Alteration 5

If you are having difficulty redrawing the front crotch curve, slide the pattern back together.  Mark the bottom edge of the facing area and trim off the front fly facing.  Follow all the steps and then tape the front facing back in place once the new center front is drawn in, lining up the facing with the marking on the pattern.  Draw a line extending the facing up to the waistline  ( I used this pattern piece, because I knew someone would ask about that).

Here is your new front pattern piece, use this for the front and left, of course one will have a front facing section and the other will not.  This is the same alteration for any pant style when you need a little more room in the tummy area.

How are your jeans coming along for March’s wardrobe challenge?  The judges are almost finished with February’s winners, hope to announce them this weekend.

SPECIAL OFFER FROM WAWAK SEWING!

Looking to stock up on jean sewing supplies – zippers, jean thread, jean buttons … WAWAK Sewing is offering $10 off the next order of $80 or more!  This offer is good until March 31st, use PROMO CODE:  WAGW314 when checking out.  What a great treat for the jean challenge!  Thanks WAWAK! 🙂

That’s all for today 🙂  Sun is shining and snow is melting, thank goodness!!!!

 

 

Sewing the Front Pockets on Designer Jeans (part 1)

Sewing the Front Pockets on Designer Jeans (part 1)

Another quick lesson on sewing designer jeans, sewing the front pockets.  I have broken this into two parts as this lesson will cover attaching the silk charmeuse lining and topstitching the pocket edge.  The next lesson shows how to add a coin pocket and closing up the lining.  To get started you will need your front jean pieces and the pocket lining.  You will usually find cotton as the fabric for the pocket lining, but I prefer to use something a little more luxurious, like silk charmeuse.  Because the silk is so thin you can’t see the pockets through the outside of the jean, not to mention the fabric feels awesome against the skin.

Again, experimenting with some of the new features on my Brother Dreamweaver XE VM6200D stitching this pocket is painless. First off, look at the size of the new “J” foot. (The picture has the original foot alongside the new foot).  The longer length really makes a difference when sewing across layers of fabric.  The foot glides across humps, thicker seams, even uneven edges as the pocket we will topstitch.  I call this a BIG plus!

Onto sewing the pockets … pin your silk charmeuse lining to the denim fabric along the curve of your pocket.  You can stitch from either side, I chose to stitch with the denim on the top so you can see the sew straight laser vision guide a little better.  I have aligned the laser with the raw edge of the fabric, allowing me to sew the entire pocket curve with a precise seam allowance.

Press the Pocket Lining … Turn the lining to the inside of the pocket and steam press, using the tailor’s clapper to permanently hold that crease (shown on video below).

Topstitch the Pocket Edge … Again, utilizing the laser light to make sure my first topstitch line is perfectly placed 1/8″ from the edge of the pocket curve.  Then I move the laser light to align with the previous topstitch line, but here is a new one for you.  I am able to use the v-sonic pen pal to touch where I want the laser light to move to.  You have to check out the video below to get the full visual of this unique feature, but simply put … engage the pen pal, touch the bed of the sewing machine where you want the laser light to shine, and hit OK.  That’s it!  Just imagine how easy sewing straight rows of topstitching will be 🙂

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AOuS5b7lrw]

Brother™ has provided me with the DreamWeaver XE, but all opinions expressed are entirely my own

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