Hit me baby one more time.

The Sew Weekly challenge for last week was to redo a pattern. They used patterns from earlier in the year but I haven't done a lot of challenges so I decided to do two that I sort of needed. Forgive the title but every time I think if this challenge I get "Hit Me Baby One More Time" stuck in my head.

My first redo was this cream color shirt. Its made from the Jalie scoop neck top pattern. I added a lot of length to the sleeves and then added lace to the end of the sleeves and the neck line. My husband said it looked like a pirate shirt. He also says that is a compliment so I guess I'll take it. Its out of supper soft rayon lycra and while I don't necessarily love the way it drapes around the girls I think it will get a good bit of wear this winter bc it feels so good on. I still have some work to do on the arms of this pattern but I'll save that for another day.  I probably need to work on a tee shirt sloper.

My big accomplishment of the past month or so was getting my courage together to make some jeans. Ready to wear jeans and I don't have a great track record and the Jalie jeans pattern has so many great reviews that I decided that many people couldn't be wrong.  These first pictures are of the first pair.  I cut the pattern based on my waist measurment.  This is not what the directions suggest but since my waist is always the biggest of my measurments I decided to go with my gut (in more ways then one I guess).  I'm glad I did this as the muslin fit well as does this pair.  The only change I made here was to straighten out the legs. 

I should have added length but didn't so I used extra wide single fold bias tape to hem them so that they didn't get way too short.

This is the second pair.  They are out of slightly stretchier denim.  I wanted to make them skinnies so I measured a pair of jeans that I like and tapered the legs accordingly.  I'm still getting used to skinny jeans.  I guess its a sign of my age but I remember waking through the mall with my mom telling her that I'd never wear bell-bottoms.  Of course then I had boot cut and super flare jeans for years.  Now skinnies are back and I'm not so sure except that I love them stuffed into my purple boots.

I also added 3 inches of length to these at the knee.  I like the added length.  It allows them to rumple a bit at the bottom.  I also tightened these up a little by using a 5/8in outer seam allowance for the outseam.  I think they could still be a bit snugger but I wasn't feeling brave.

You probably can't see them well but I put pin-tucks on the back pockets of this pair and used purple top-stitching thread for both pairs.  Does anyone know where you can order different colors of top-stitching thread from?  I'd love some funky colors but purple was the most interesting color at my local store.

Anyways, I'm loving my new jeans. I've still got a bit to learn and I'm sure there will be plenty of new pairs to come but they fit so well without falling down. I feel like my rtw pairs are either uncomfortable at the beginning of the day or falling off by the end of the day. While I doubt I will ever be completely done with rtw clothing my quest for the perfect jeans is over. I'm getting closer with every pair so I think I'll just stick with making them myself.