Forever In Blue Jeans. Not.

Ok, first off, if my tone is somewhat… short-tempered, that’s because I made a whole post about these stupid flippin’ jeans and then proceeded to lose it.  Somewhere.  Possibly because aliens took over my computer and stole it.  Possibly because put it in the Recycle Bin  and then cleared it.  Maybe.

Hmmph.

Here then is my NEW POST about these STUPID FLIPPIN’ JEANS.

Sorry.

Ottobre Design 4/2009 #31

So several weeks ago TLo asked me to pleeeease make her some jeans.  Because she is a perverse little monster who enjoys tormenting her mother to the point of actual insanity.  See, five months ago TLo insisted (INSISTED) that she would not wear anything at all but skirts.  Not dresses.  Not pants.  Not anything unless it was a skirt.  Until two weeks ago when she suddenly decided that she would only wear jeans.

 

 

 

I’m still taking deep, cleansing breaths.

 

So jeans it is.  Except that jeans are awkward for TLo because of her shape (due to which she wears a minimum of a 7 in width but a 5 in length… which means that if I buy her jeans in a 7, the crotch rise is about three inches too long and really uncomfortable.  Considering she is in kindergarten and spends most of her day sitting on the floor, I decided this was probably a legitimate issue for her.  You try sitting on the floor all day with your waistband under your armpits.  Fun?  Exactly.)

Unfortunately, the jeans I started to make for her caused me so much agony that I finally gave up after a whole weekend of work, broke down and bought her a pair from Walmart (-shudder-).  I had to hem them up about five inches and the crotch rise was indeed three inches too long, but they were jeans.  Then last weekend I went back to the almost-finished jeans and of course they practically put themselves together, it went so smoothly.  This just proves that you should never sew when tired (which my needle-punched fingers can prove).

Here are her jeans.  They are hideous.  Just to prove the  point, I have included pictures of the REAL jeans I bought.

my jeans

  LEI jeans

Now granted, I used gruesome fabric (which I got for free, so I guess you get what you pay for).  But still. 

These do have the advantage of being very low in the rise so they do fit comfortably when sitting.  In fact, they’re so low that I wasn’t totally sure TLo would be able to wear them.  I cut a size 116, then added 1” to the back leg width down the grainline and shortened by about two inches.  (This is eerily familiar to the amazing sizing discovery I made while working on my pencil skirt.  More on that next time.)

I did do my usual extension of the pocket so that it becomes the interfacing for the fly facing, which I think is a better solution than the RTW.  It keeps the pockets from pulling out, which is nice.

  my jeans interior pocket detail

  LEI jeans interior pocket detail

Here’s how you do that, if you’re interested:

Overlay the pocket piece over the pants leg piece that has the fly front (so it basically looks the way it will when it’s sewn up).  Then trace the fly facing part onto the pocket part and redraw it.  (These are from the disastrous BWOF skirt I did two weeks ago, but it’s the same process.)   Baste the pocket fabric to the fly facing after you’ve sewn the pockets and then treat it as a sewn-in interfacing when you construct the zipper.

 

So that worked ok.  Of course, LEI remembered to make actual buttonholes for their buttonhole elastic, so they’re one up on me there.  I had to fix mine with a bit of elastic jury-rigged into the back of the waistband.

In any case, TLo now has two pairs of jeans.   The real pair and this pair.

 

I’m sure next week she will decide that she only wants to wear polar fleece vests and a pink tutu.

Random Information

1)  The kindly Cynth commented a while back on my fabric purchase from Hancock Fabrics.  She very graciously came back (after being subjected to craven pleading by yours truly), and posted a link to photos of her fabulous HP 24/7 A-Line Skirt version. 

Check it out.  I'm thinking that this style might be a bit over-the-top on me (simply because making such a skirt for myself will require substantially more fabric than Cynth used and whoa baby that's quite a statement—and maybe not one I need to make).   But I really like her results and now the wheels are churning in my little hamster-cage of a head.

2)  Judy In N.Z., a.k.a. Judy-Does-She-Ever-Make-Anything-Ugly-No-She-Doesn't-I-Hate-Her, had asked about the line drawings I made of my imaginary garments

and whether there is a tutorial for this.  Unfortunately, there is not.  In the spirit of full disclosure:  I am actually a bona fide, trained, professional illustrator.  Therefore I gots the skillz (and the software) to make said illustrations.  If there was a relatively easy way for me to provide the how-to I would, but I think that's probably beyond the scope of a tutorial.  Beyond the scope of one I can deal with, at any rate.  So I'm not much help there.  All I can recommend is... that you hire a bona fide trained professional illustrator. She takes checks, cash or Pay Pal.  Or barring that, just brush up on your drawing skills and be proud of your achievements as they are, because I don't think anyone expects perfect drawings… and doggonit, people like you.  There.  Daily Affirmation.  (I heart Al Franken… and whatever happened to Davis?  What the heck am I talking about?  Google it, baby.)

3)  KidMD (Katie) made a comment on that same Have-You-Seen-This-Dress post and provided us all with The Answer.... in the form of McCalls 5885, which is truly one of the ugliest things I have ever seen in my life. 

Until you get past the crazy-ass ruffles on that first shirt and take a look at the line-drawings. 

Then you see the true brilliance of KidMD, who is - clearly - a genius.  Takes one to know one, I always say.  So now I have something to purchase when McCall patterns go back on sale.  Because I really need more patterns.   Stop laughing.

And thus ends today’s episode of “Random Information”.  That is all.

You’re Hot Then You’re Cold. Maybe. Maybe Not.

Today TLo asked me to pleeeeease get her a new song for her iPod. 

"Which song did you want?"

"You know, the one on Kids Bop?"  This is already a bad, bad sign.  Kids Bop is quite possibly the most horrifying thing I have ever heard.  Ever.   The afterschool van driver seems to have a penchant for it which seriously points to a question about her stability.

"Weeell," I start, trying to temporize.  "I don't really think it's--"

"But it's on Kids Bop, Mom.  You know?  Kids?"  She gives me the evil eye.  "I looooove that song."

"Well, which song is--"

"You know!  'You change your mind like a, um, bird takes a, um.... ‘You're hot in your nose, you're in and about, you're up then, uh, mumble mumble...'   That one?"

"----"

"You know?"

"'You're hot in your nose?' Seriously?"

"Moooom...."

We will not be acquiring that particular song.