Black Ginger Jeans and a Lane Raglan

These black Ginger Jeans are my new favorite project I've sewn! In fact I've worn them at least once a week (sometimes twice a week) since I finished them. I already owned a pair of store-bought black jeans and I haven't worn those since finishing these Gingers. I may never wear those rtw jeans again. They're probably destined to head to Goodwill soon. That's how much I love the fit of these Ginger Jeans. Never buying jeans again!

These are a solid jet black (lightened a bit in the photo above to show detail) from fashionfabricsclub.com. Got it for 50% off during a sale, and their prices are very low even without a sale. That made me question the quality, but these actually have much better recovery than the blue denim in my previous pair (fabric from hancocks). But if you're looking for cheap denim for a practice muslin, the stuff from fashionfabricsclub worked fine. I have one more pair of ginger jeans in progress in a light grey also from fashionfabricsclub. 

I've since purchased some fabulous high quality blue denim from GreysFabric.com. I'm looking forward to sewing those up! And I pre-ordered some of the fancy Cone Mills Denim when closetcasefiles and workroom social offered it last week, yay!

I've realized I actually really love doing topstitching. And my cheap Brother machine is still chugging along doing nice topstitching. My serger however is having issues now, and is in the shop again (it's also a Brother....in the future i'm dreaming of upgrading...i keep hearing better things about janome, juki, pfaff, and bernina models $$$) I'm considering flat felling the seams on my current light grey Ginger Jeans...

This pair of Gingers has hot pink polka dot linings. I posted a few photos on Instagram. I did the pocket stay this time and love it! (tutorial on the closetcasefiles sewalong) I also used the lining fabric to interline the yoke pieces for added stability. I took another wedge out of the waistband this time to make it curve in a bit more. And I lengthened the rise by 3/4" so they aren't quite as low. This is View A, the stovepipe leg, but it's fairly skinny on my fuller-than-average calves. I'm considering tapering my light grey pair down from the calf to the ankle for more of a skinny look, maybe?

I also whipped up this Lane Raglan tee, cut and sewn in a Sunday afternoon, everything done on my serger, except for the hem on the bottom. I prefer a hem on the bottom rather than a band, but a band could easily be used to make this a serger-only project. (Although now my serger is in the shop because it started skipping stitches, sad face.) This is a size small, and if I used a heavier fabric I might size up to a medium for more of a sweatshirt look. The only change I made was to add 2 inches to the length, partly because I'm tall and like my shirts long, and partly because I hemmed instead of doing a band at the bottom. 

The knit fabric is from Mood when I went to New York in October. It's soft and washes well and has a really nice drape. I think I ended up running the print the wrong way technically, but I liked the stripes running horizontally better, and it worked fine because it still has a little stretch and this isn't that fitted. I used pieces of the wide selvedge for the white neck and arm bands. I did a 3/4 sleeve instead of the long sleeve that's shown in this pattern. I wear 3/4 sleeves more often than long sleeves because of our very mild winters. I will definitely be making more Lane Raglans, and have plans to lengthen into a cute dress! (If I could just get my serger back...)