I ate colloidal silver for 14 years and i've turned blue, or, I made jeans!

Remember this guy??



I got this denim from my friend Julia in a just-barely-before-Stash-Game trade. It's nice and dark!!!
And, despite being washed several times, still turned my hands blue!

I had drafted a pattern for wide-legged jeans from Weekend Designer in January, hoping to make myself a pair of pants that didn't have too low of a rise for my tummy and long torso (even mid-rise is right above my hip bones). I really needed a denim trouser....something less constricting and fiddly (pulling down, hiking up, etc) while wearing, Something that looked nice, but not like I am always wearing dress pants.

About the Weekend Designer draft instructions: the width of your leg at the hem determines the width of the whole pant leg, so if you want a flare, you're going to have to vary from the drafting instructions. Also, because this draft instructions contains NO sewing instructions, I recommend sewing a pair of pants from a pattern with instructions first, even if they're not your size. Just make them from a sheet or something, so you can see the order in which to put these together.

So...these are what I ended up with. You can see where my problem lies in finding well-fitting pants, in the significant difference in waist and hip sizes. The legs ARE wide on me, purposely, to fit more like a trouser than traditional jeans.

Here is the fancy back pocket and close up of the waist band. The white is a bit of marking pencil.

I used double needle on the hem.

 

I used a button from my vintage stash...it has a big ship on it. Tee hee!! And here is my well-executed two-seam zippered fly, ala Nancy Zieman. (on Half.com for .75) Oh yes, and the belt loops. To make belt loops, I assume they're 9cm long, and 5cm wide, but I make ONE long, 45 cm strip. I fold it in thirds, then double needle down the WHOLE length of it. Then I divide it into 5ths, and cut them. After I stitch them on the pants, I use a generous amount of Fray Check to seal the double needle

 

I added a coin pocket on one side, and lined both pockets with this vintage-ish calico

And here they are modeled!!! 

The back

The front

And the most important thing of all: NO GAPING WAIST BAND!!!! Almost EVERY pair of store-bought pants has a huge gaping waistband, since I have to buy to fit my hips. UG!! So hideous under clothing!! And belts don't help at all. YUCK!!

 I also had Doug do a few pics of me in my free burda download top. Here it is with out the stretchy pull-over belt

I'm going to blame the goofy-goober look on my face on my photographer, who was told to look critically at me for anything unsightly so that I wouldn't humiliate myself on the interwebs.  Good job, Doug. ;)

 

And, finally, the top with belt added. This is especially nice if you're wearing pants that have gaping waist-bands. tee hee!! I like how it lenghtens the look of the top. Oh, yes, I am also well-aware that this is another goofy pic, and that William is showing me his cup he took out of the trash. Sigh.