Jean-ious

In between my melt-downs (and actually, during them as well) I've been crafting. Can we all give a huge shout out to crafting...my personal savior? Yep, no amount of misery can stem the tide of my creativity. Um...err...or my attempt at creativity as the case may be with this next example of handmade glory...



Oh yes, I made my own jeans.

Now, I'd like to say that the process of making one's own denim pantalones was one that I enjoyed immensely, but then I'd be fibbing. Oh. My. God. Making jeans is hard peeps! Firstly, how many pattern pieces should one really have to deal with in one project? One pair of jeans has like, oh I don't know, a bazillion pieces! Damn the belt loops!

*Ahem*

Okay, so I knew I was in trouble when I began to liberate my pattern pieces from their paper frames. I'd cut out one or two out and think, well, that's got to be all of them. Then I'd look at the stack of folded pattern pile-age in front of me and think, Really??? Pinning all those pieces to the denim and cutting them out was no party either. However, I must admit that cutting out pattern pieces is NOT my favorite part of the sewing process. It's kind of like cleaning toilets or folding a hundred white socks. Boring AND tedious. Yay! Anyway, after three hours of cutting I began what I thought was going to be "the fun part" of making my own jeans.

Okay, if you have jeans on, I want you to strip from the waist down right now.

Yes, I mean it! C'mon, humor me.

Are you nekked? Okay, good. Now, turn your jeans inside out and look at all of the pieces sewn together that create both the front pockets and fly.

Are you feeling my pain?

Fine, you can get dressed now. Thanks for playing.

Needless to say, it took me four three hour classes to sew my denim dynamos together, from controlling the stitch line of the reinforced stitches to putting in the fly to riveting the pockets. I whined the entire time (my version of whistle while you work). Oh, and let's just say that I came to know my seam ripper INTIMATELY.

Now, here's the sick and twisted part of this whole thing...I have a stack of fabric, both denim and corduroy, that I intend to use to make many a pair of future jeans. I must be a glutton for punishment, eh? Or, perhaps, I could turn this process from one of torture to tickled pink (I mean blue) with just two little words: assless chaps. A pair of those would look smashing in ladybug print corduroy and won't have as many pattern pieces to contend with.

I'm a jean-ious.