As some of you may know, my husband and I recently opened an online fabric store - Threadbare Fabrics - currently specializing in Cone Mills Denim (including 11.5oz and 9oz Indigo S-Gene, and 12oz black). I'll be completely honest in telling you that our 12.5oz Rigid Denim has not been super popular - but maybe this will help people envision how to use it.
When we first thought about carrying denim, rigid was a must... for men's jeans! You can totally use the rigid denim for jean jackets, other outerwear, accessories, etc - but I think it looks great in jeans form. The denim comes raw, so if a man in your life (or you!) is obsessed with raw denim then this is just the thing.
Pattern: Thread Theory Jedediah
Size: 34
Modifications: Used the Jutland pattern to turn Jedediah into jeans
Fabric: 12.5 oz Rigid Cone Mills Denim from Threadbare Fabrics
The pattern I used is the Thread Theory Jedediah pattern. Jedediah makes a great slim jean - but you have to make a few adjustments first. The pattern comes with slash pockets in the front, and the option for welt pockets in the back for more of a chino look. Luckily I also own the Jutland pattern, which has more traditional jeans pockets in the front. I used that pattern, along with a healthy knowledge of Ginger jeans construction, to reshape the front pockets. I also drew a coin pocket from scratch, based on a pair of Jeremy's favorite jeans (mostly because I forgot to print the Jutland one). I also took the opportunity to shape the pocket bags to his liking - based, again, on his favorite jeans.
For sizing, I ended up cutting Jeremy's RTW size, but you should definitely check measurements against the given size chart. Men seem to be so much easier to fit, but you don't want pants that are too big or too small.
After all of my modifications (easy - really they are!), I got to work on the construction. The instructions that come with Jedediah seem slightly complicated, and because I was creating more jeans than chinos, I actually used the Closet Case Files Ginger Jeans Sewalong as my guide.
Everything came together really easily, and was looking good until I got to the front fly. For some reason, I sewed the outside curved lines a little wide of the center front, and managed to miss sewing down the fly extension and fly shield. I didn't realize this until Jeremy tried the jeans on the first time, and the fly pulled towards the middle in a really bizarre way. Unfortunately by this point, the jeans were all sewn together, and I couldn't really unpick/resew the topstitching correctly because of the zipper. The solution was to sew a line of topstitching next to the existing two, but it resulted in a wobbly *design feature* that isn't my favorite solution. Luckily he still wears the jeans and his shirts generally cover it. I considered using a navy thread to do the fix, but I worried that if these jeans last the long haul, then they might fade lighter than the navy thread, and it'd still look weird. Either way - I'll be correcting my mistake on the next pair!
And speaking of the next pair, there are some more tweaks to make. The Jedediah pattern creates pants that sit a little higher on the waist than Jeremy prefers. One solution would be to measure your intended recipient's favorite jeans at the fly, back yoke and back curve to see what looks best. In Jeremy's situation, I'll be lowering the front rise by at least 1", and lowering his back yoke by the same. His other jeans feature a much shorter yoke, and I like the way the pockets/back curve sit - so I won't be adjusting those. I'll change the waistband to match.
Overall - Jeremy is really really happy with these jeans, and so am I! The denim worked out so well, and it's crazy how solid and heavy (in a good way!) the final jeans feel due to the denim's quality. As soon as Jeremy tried these on, I said, "Well these are officially the nicest jeans you own." And he agreed.
Any of you brave souls out there ready to try men's jeans?! If you have made Ginger jeans (or another pattern), they really are a cinch. And if you haven't made jeans, the forgiving nature of men's fitting might make these easier than you think.
