Sewing jeans is not that hard.

Stay with me here – I’m not saying that sewing trousers is trivial or quick, but if you break the project down, each step is very manageable. And trust me that once you start making trousers that fit, it’s addictive. Over the last two years I’ve made myself 10 pairs of trousers/shorts and I don’t think I’ll be going back to ready-to-wear any time soon.

Sewing trousers – and especially jeans – has a reputation of being difficult and complicated. But in my opinion sewing a two-piece bias skirt out of a slinky, drapy fabric is way harder than constructing a pair of jeans!

Perhaps the reason that jeans seem complicated is that we’ve all struggled with ready-to-wear jeans. Finding the perfect pair of jeans is like dating – it’s exhausting. And the moment you find them is such an exhilarating event that it was the basis of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

So I think what we all need is a guide map and a little bit of encouragement. I hope that this series about drafting your own jeans can provide both. Yes, the process involves a lot of steps, but each step is easy once you break it down!

Why do jeans seem scary?

I want to start with the reasons that jeans seem scary, and why it isn’t actually so bad.

1. Trouser fitting in general

One thing that is very true for jeans is that it’s difficult to adjust the fit during/after construction. This is because most seams are flat-felled seams, which require multiple rows of stitches per seam and therefore multiple steps to unpick.

In this guide I’ll be going through the process of drafting a jeans pattern from a basic trouser block. Once your trouser block fits, converting it to a jeans pattern has a high chance of success. Therefore this guide will start with tips general trouser fitting.

Note: I have only sewn trousers for myself so I don’t have experience with every fitting problem. However there are lots of great resources out there and I will point you to the ones I have used!

2. Sewing with denim

Denim can be quite tough, especially once you start folding it over and sewing through many layers. However you don’t need any special equipment once you find the right fabric, needle and thread. A regular domestic sewing machine will do just fine!

3. Flat-felled seams

I love the look of flat-felled seams and they are incredibly strong. There are lots of methods to sew them, including some ways that let you take a short-cut. This isn’t cheating, it’s just personal preference. Choose a method that works for you.

4. Lots of visible top-stitching

Personally, I think top-stitching is the fun part. After all that work constructing your seams, don’t you want people to see what you’ve done?? To get the perfect top-stitching, I would send you straight to Johanna Lundström from The Last Stitch, who has some great resources on this topic (and many others when it comes to jeans!)

5. Constructing the fly

Not gonna lie here, every time I sew a fly I’m thinking “What the hell is going on??”. But again, the difficulty of sewing a fly is just the number of steps involved. My tips are: