This is one of those blog posts where I don’t quite know where to start! Sooo much to talk about.

These Morgan Jeans by Closet Case Patterns are my first time sewing non-stretch jeans, first time sewing a selvedge denim and were sewn in my first ever sewing class!

Oh and the first time meeting a sewing idol: Heather Lou of Closet Case Patterns!!!

So where to begin with all those firsts?

The Morgan Jeans is a boyfriend jeans pattern designed for non-stretch or selvedge denim.

A word of warning – when I read that the Morgan Jeans was for selvedge denim, I assumed that meant that it had a straight side seam so you could show off the selvedge with an upturned cuff. It doesn’t mean this! The side seam of the Morgan Jeans is subtly curved to hug the female form in a more flattering way. So if you want a selvedge down a side seam (like I did), you have to do a bit of basic hacking.

So read on…

Jeans Master Class with Heather Lou of Closet Case Patterns

The inspiration for these Morgan Jeans came from by decision to sign up to attend the Jeans Master Class with Heather Lou of Closet Case Patterns held at the New Craft House in London this summer.

The class gives you the opportunity to sew either the Ginger Jeans or the Morgan Jeans, all the while having your hand held by Heather Lou. Plus, it gave me a weekend away from responsibility in which I could completely indulge my sewing passions while surrounded by other people who just get it!!!

So, in an act of self-care, I signed myself up.

As I had already made Ginger Jeans a couple of times (see here and here) and felt that I had a pretty good idea of what I still needed to do to improve the fit with that pattern, I thought I would try the Morgan Jeans for the class.

This was also inspired by my fear that non-stretch denim is, quite simply, a tad terrifying, so better to have my hand held through the fear!

Selvedge dreams

As mentioned above, the Morgan Jeans, as drafted, are actually a more tapered and feminine shape than what you see here. I modified the leg shape so that, from the widest point of my thighs, the side seam would run straight down parallel to the grainline. This was motivated mostly by the fact that I wanted to show off the selvedge in an upturned cuff.

It was also inspired by my Pinterest rabbit hole of looser boyfriend jeans! From which, incidentally, I saw that even on models it’s quite common for this style of jeans to hang from the knee down in a bit of a loose and wavy manner.

The underlying idea of my desire for a looser style is that I don’t really like the shape of my legs and I feel self-conscious when a pattern hugs that shape too closely. The idea was to create an illusion of a more balanced silhouette through a less fitted style.

I’m not convinced whether I’ve succeeded though! But these are mighty comfortable and the perfect “weekend” jean.

And just look at that cuff!

However, by the end of the class, as I was admiring everyone’s perfectly fitted jeans closely sculpting their legs, I was wondering whether my obsession with using the selvedge (thus the straight side seam) had cost me the chance to get expert input on a more fitted leg shape. And that perhaps I could have saved the selvedge experiment for a time when, you know, Heather Lou wasn’t directly accessible.

Oh well, you live, you learn.

Speaking of which, I saw a fabulous idea during the class of a cute little way you can incorporate a pretty selvedge into your jeans apart from at the side seam.

As the visible top edge of a coin pocket!

It looks so cute and saves you a bit of interfacing, pressing and top-stitching. I saw this stroke of creative genius from @chloemontrose and wish I’d seen it sooner.

So that I could have blatantly copied of course!!!!!!

So if a straight side seam is not your thing, there are definitely other ways to show off a pretty selvedge.

The fabric I used was an ex-designer selvedge denim which I also bought at the New Craft House – it’s sold out now though so no links!

In order to be able to finish a pair of jeans in two days, the idea is that you come to class with your jeans basted together so you can start right away with fitting. As I was really scared about the challenge of fitting non-stretch denim, I came to class with a muslin and with everything but my leg piece cut out of my real fabric.

My Morgan Jeans

My Morgan Jeans are a size 14 of the waist, grading to a size 16 at the hip.

At the muslin-ing stage (apart from the leg straightening), I had already made a few changes. I’d lowered the crotch curve by about a centimetre, made a very slight flat pubis adjustment and scooped out the butt curve into more of an l-shape (low-seat adjustment).

One thing which surprised me is that, on my Ginger Jeans, I had made quite a few adjustments to the waistband in order to have a hyper-curved shape (both on my mid-rise and high rise gingers). I was expecting something similar to be necessary here. Imagine the surprise when, in fact, the Morgan Jeans fit me perfectly around the waist!

Jackpot!!

I also skipped the button fly on the Morgan Jeans and sewed a regular zipper fly. Cuz, you know, sometimes I just need to pee quickly!!! The great thing is that this requires no modifications to the pattern, you just skip the button fly piece, then follow the instructions for a zipper fly from somewhere else (Ginger jeans has the best instructions for this IMHO…)

Off to sewing school…

Sooo, the chance to sew these at Heather Lou’s Masterclass at the New Craft House was unique.

Being an entirely indie-sewing-pattern taught sewists, I’ve never taken a sewing class before. Hell, I’ve never even really met another sewist in real life before (except for family members and the people at my local fabric store…).

The class starts by getting fitting advice on your basted/muslined jeans from Heather Lou. Based on that, you make any changes to the pattern pieces, re-cut anything you need and then, well, off you go!

In my case, I was still in muslin at that stage. Yet there weren’t really any changes that were obvious from the muslin at the outset, so I didn’t actually have any initial modifications to make after my initial fitting. In the words of a fellow student: “Don’t worry, this will still totally be worth your 400 pounds!!!”.

One thing I would note about the Jeans Master Class course is that your experience might be a bit difference based on when you get fitted. The initial fit stage took the first half of the first day – that’s one-quarter of the workshop. I had the fortune of being fitted pretty early, but I got a bit of an impression that, for those who were fitted later, it was a bit easier to feel like you were “falling behind”. The actual instructions were given at a pace accessible for all but the structure of the first day of the class did depend quite a bit on when you got fitted.

(E.g. for me, that first day involved early fitting, a bit of prep, then plenty of cups of tea..)

You then proceed to sew your jeans, step-by-step, receiving demonstrations and tips from Heather Lou (who also sews her own pair during the class – she must have soooooo many pairs of jeans!). Then once you’re finished or just about, you try on your jeans again for additional fitting advice as to how you might try to improve things on your next pair.

If anyone is wondering whether it is actually even possible to sew a pair of jeans over 2 days in a class environment, the answer is “just about”. In my case, I had to leave an hour early to catch a flight, and I left with everything done except sewing on my belt loops, my button and buttonhole, leather patch and hems . So just some finishing touches to go. I’d say most people left with almost finished jeans too. Of course, everyone worked at their own pace (so no need to fear if you think you are a “slow sewist”). But at minimum everyone got their jeans sufficiently done that they could do a final try on and check for additional fitting tips for next time!

Improving the fit of my Morgan Jeans next time

At the ‘final fit’ stage, Heather suggested that to fix some of the wrinkles you’re seeing at both the back and front of this pair of Morgan Jeans, I could go even further with both my flat pubis adjustment and my low seat adjustment. This was valuable information because while I know I often need these adjustments it is difficult sometimes to know just how far you should go!!

The other great advice that she gave me, which I would never have thought of on my own, is that, on my body, the pockets and coin pocket hit right at a point where I have a bit of a curve inwards before I curve back out again below.

The pocket placement was hitting at just the wrong place to kind of emphasise this “bump”. However, I could simply move the coin pocket up a little and slightly redraft the pocket curve to join the side seam a tad higher in order to avoid this accent at the wrong place.

Such a simple thing but it wouldn’t have really crossed my mind to play with that. After all, it’s not something you commonly see in a fitting guide!

And, yes, in case you are wondering I did my usual ‘cheat’ for jeans top stitching by sewing with regular thread on a triple straight stitch, which then enabled me to use a twin jeans needles a lot of the time!

Also, a huuge advantage of doing the Jeans Master Class is that I got to have my back pockets expertly placed by Heather for the idiosyncrasies of my rear-end!

Well, indeed, that’s just about worth the price of the course in itself.

New sewing friends

One of the best things about the course was the chance to chat non-stop about sewing with 11 other sewists. It really was quite a unique experience to be able to talk sewing to be people who actually understand and aren’t just humouring me by letting me crap on about sewing!

There was plenty of fabric caressing going on. And there is seriously nothing more fun than walking into a room and being able to say to people “nice Zadie, great Palisade pants, cool Kalle, awesome Roscoe hack”.

If only real life was like that!

I’m an avowed introvert. A somewhat antisocial one at that. But even I found it really rewarding.

It’s actually fun to see people you interact with on instagram in real life. It’s like the grown up equivalent of meeting your childhood pen pal. For those of you who may have actually grown up in an era where it made sense to have pen pals… When the post wasn’t just for online shopping…

And light bulb moments…

The Jeans Master Class also gave me a bit of personal a-ha moment in terms of sizing and our sewing bodies.

It was really nice to be surrounded by sewists of different ages, sizes and with different personal styles. And seeing everyone’s me made garments in real life, not just stylised instagran posts!

Everyone is trying on their jeans and getting rather up close and personal with everything, so it’s a very body-friendly environment. I remember noticing another sewists whose jeans, like mine, were also a size 14 waist graded to a size 16 hip. But the two of us had bodies which looked in no way similar at all.

It was a very real demonstration of something I’ve understood in theory but have had difficulties to really internalise. Just because I’m a certain size that alone doesn’t dictate how clothes are going to fit my body. The notion that me and this other sewists would each be able to perfectly fit into the same pair of jeans was laughable if you saw us side by side. Different heights, shapes, proportions and body distribution, despite our similar waist and hip measurements.

Size is really just a starting point for doing the things you need to do to create something that fits your body.

Micro-sewing and other first world problems

While the Jeans Master Class was, all in all, a pretty awesome experience, it was definitely a unique experience sewing in a confined space with so many people.

The studio at New Craft House is cute but SMALL! There were two large tables and each one housed 6 sewists during the Jeans Matser Class. Once the sewing machines are on the table, this gives each sewist about, ummm, 20 centimetres of table space. So, yeah, you got pretty squeezy with your sewing neighbours.

Thanks goodness everyone was so nice.

The sewing machines were also a bit temperamental and I can’t say that anyone walked away from the weekend thinking “wow, I need to buy one of those sewing machines!”. Only some of the sewing machines had all their little bits and bobs, so there was a lot of “my machine doesn’t haven’t a buttonhole foot, anyone got one?” happening!!

I also found that it could be a bit frustrating to not really have access to the same equipment you might have at home.

For example, there were no clappers or tailors hams available. There were only two irons/ironing boards (although, surprising this was usually OK). For most of the class, there was only one overlocker working. I only saw one point turner and it was the cheap plastic kind (after having used a bamboo point turner, I can never go back!). At the end, for installing rivets and yanking out zipper teeth, there was only one anvil/hammer/wire cutter/pliers. For me, I expected a bit more, well, access to equipment for a class which was supposed to be providing everything you need to make jeans except for the fabric and thread.

(Yeah, yeah, I see your point – if there was so little equipment available perhaps I should have been using it, rather than photographing it!!!!!)

As an aside, whilst on equipment, since the rivet disaster on my last pair of Ginger Jeans, I have been totally converted to the necessity of snipping your rivets with wire cutters before installing and I immediately bought my own wire cutters as soon as I came home!

There were also some organisational issues in advance of the class and we didn’t actually receive the paper patterns we were supposed to receive by mail in advance. These are all, of course, definitely first world problems. But, still, when I pay for a premium course, it was still a tad frustrating .

The one that bothered me the most was just the fact that I actually had better pressing and finishing equipment at home than was available at the studio. I mean really, how can a jeans-making workshop not have a clapper available????

Despite such minor irritations, definitely no regrets here at having done the course.

I came home with jeans, back pockets placed by Heather Lou and new sewing friends that I’ve actually met in real life. It was, in all honesty, the most refreshed I’ve felt in a long time!

Oh and fabric…

So much fabric from London…

Three pieces of which I’ve already sewn up in the last two weeks – can you tell I love summer sewing the most of all????

Oh and, finally, a little P.S! If you like to get your blog hits through Bloglovin’, feel free to follow me over there: you can find me here. And you can find me on Instagram here.