Embroidered Ginger Jeans

Embroidered jeans are showing up in spring fashion  and I am jumping on that trend.  These jeans have been my project for a week and I am so pleased on how they turned out.  So be warned this post is photo overload!

My pattern is Closet Case Patterns' Ginger Jeans and I have made these jeans so many times and I like each of them but I love these.

Let's talk about this great denim, it has the perfect amount of stretch and I do think it is truly the first time I have made a  pair of Ginger Jeans with the right amount of stretch.  Unfortunately, I think this denim is sold out but Michelle has an entire category of denim and twill

The fit of the back is pretty good, I might try to fold out a bit of the pattern just below the butt, but all in all the fit is good.

With my first pair, I added an inch to the rise and made the waistband wider by sewing smaller seam allowances.  I have always liked this change but in the future I think I will return to the pattern seam allowance for the waistband.

Here is a close up of the front of the pants and the embroidery, which we will talk about in a bit.

One thing with this pair, I really worked on the fit.  I basted the seams, tried them on, then stitched the side seams.  The waistband was put on in stages and then I worked on the fit.  By adding that inch to the rise, I needed to really work on getting the waistband to fit.  I have changed the waistband to have a center back seam.  My center back seam is at a significant angle to get the waistband to fit me and not gap.  I finally got it right this time. I did interface the waistband with a non stretch fusible and that helps the fit, too

Oh yes, one more change, I tapered from the knee down to get more fitted look.

I don't love this top with my jeans but it was the best I had until I make another one or find one in RTW I like better.  I do have a top cut out in a peach fabric, so we will see.

Just before I hemmed the jeans, I tried them on one more time.  I had just a bit extra fabric at the lower hip, just below the side topstitching.  I took the jeans in about another 3/8" and tapered to nothing, this helped quite a bit.  Another change was to shorten the left pocket bag.  Since the jeans are tighter and a thinner stretch denim I could not get the pocket bottom not to show an imprint on my jeans.  I even used my pinking shears but that line was right there.  I made the pocket so short, the bottom fits at the bend of my hip.  No more show through.  The pocket under the embroidery is long but I think the embroidery helps to hide the line.

Now let's talk about the details and thanks for all the help through Instagram for the embroidery.  With your suggestions, I went with Urban Threads' Painted Poppies for the main design and added the Urban Threads' Cherry Blossoms to add more to the design.

Plus I liked how these two designs how very similar outline stitching.

I did some edits in my embroidery software and isolated parts of the two designs for the full design. Truthfully, this was the first time I really spent some time learning some of the features in the software.  I enjoyed it and I am sure I will be using it more often.  

I was going to put on rivets but changed my mind and went with one of the many different stitches on my machine.  I just used it on the coin pocket but isn't it fun?

To add more interest, I went with  two different colors of thread for all the topstitching.  The blue is a traditional constructing thread and the orange is a Sulky embroidery thread.  I used a triple stitch so the topstitching would be a bit more visible since I was not using thicker topstitching thread.

One more thing to point out - the construction thread it the one that is on the edge of all the pockets.  My thought was the Sulky was too thin to really hold the pockets into place.

Belt loop

Back pockets.

I am so very happy how these turned out and already planning more embroidery!