Thread Theory Quadra Jeans

A few years ago when my stash was getting out of control, I vowed to only buy fabric that I had plans for.  This worked up to a point but my plans often are far more ambitious than the time available to put them into fruition.  Lock down was the perfect opportunity to play catch up.  I had put my Juki sewing machine in for repairs several weeks before lock down began and I didn't get it back in time, so my projects were limited to anything I could make on my daughters machine and my vintage Bernina neither of which made very reliable buttonholes.  Trousers then were an obvious choice because they only have one buttonhole at the most.  Top of my list was a pair of jeans for my husband who had actual need for a pair.

My pattern of choice is Thread Theory Quadra Jeans.  My daughter had previously made these up for her partner so the pattern was already in my stash because we share most of our sewing resources.  I had the denim sitting in my stash for around six months and picked the zip up on my flying visit to Lincraft before lockdown.

I chose the size I was going to make, not on my husbands measurements but on a pair of jeans he already had that fitted well.  I simply measured the waist measurement on both my pattern and the rtw pair.  The size I chose was two sizes smaller than the pattern would have me make.  I think this may be because I was at a loss as to where I was supposed to measure my husbands waist.  Should I use his natural waist measurement or the point where his waistband would naturally sit?

The denim I used was from The Fabric Store, and is a rigid selvedge denim.  I discovered after I had washed it that there were fade lines where the fabric had been stored or washed, I am not sure which.  It was a bit annoying but fortunately I had ordered enough that I could cut around these.  

The selvedge on the denim was too lovely not to use as an accent so I used it as the edge on the coin pocket and also cut strips to slip between the pocket and jean backs.

Courteney found in the scrap bin a lovely piece of cotton lawn to use as the pocket bags and I also considered using this for bias tape on the waistband as well, because I wasn't sure my machine would cope with topstitching through all the layers of a traditional waistband finish.  The further through the project I got though, I realised that this type of finish would probably not be necessary as my vintage Bernina was coping just fine with all of the layers.

Once I got to try on stage, it quickly became apparent that I had made them way too big!  To run them in the 2cm each side that was required, I needed to move the coin pocket.  For any future pairs, I will need to make a smaller size.

To finish the jeans, I added rivets and a leather patch from my stash.

Once I finished the jeans, they just felt a bit too rigid for comfort, so I threw them in the washing machine with a cap full of fabric softener.  This worked a treat, and the jeans came out really soft.

My husband loves his new jeans and is now asking for a shirt to go with it!  There is no pleasing some people!

Fabric $11.40
Pattern (used before) $0.00
Zip $3.00
Thread (from stash) $0.00
Rivets (from stasg) 
Total $14.40