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Friday 25 October 2013

Reverse engineering

For the Make a Garment a Month Challenge I am trying to copy my favorite jeans. You can read more about this ambitious plan in this post . The Craftsy course is really helpful. Kenneth King is guiding me step by step through the process, with lots of technical tips and tricks.
The first step is thread tracing lengthwise and crosswise grainlines in the original jeans.


Seams, pockets, yokes, every feature is thread traced to make it easier to copy all needed information from the garment. (This method can be applied on all garments you want to copy, not just jeans).
I forgot to make an overview picture, but the jeans in the picture below shows the tread traced lines:

Craftsy.com

The information is first transferred to silk organza, from there to paper. Voila!


The pattern ready and cut out. 

I did some test runs for the topstitching. I did not want it to be very contrasting so I just used a double thread in a color that matches my fabric. Here is one of the backpockets. I have some cleaning up to do, lots of threads to pull to the backside and tie together for a neat finish.



That's as far as I got. Some emergency apple picking due to storm forecasts changed my further sewing plans. This weekend I'm off to Amsterdam to enjoy a ballet performance, back in the sewing room on Monday!






4 comments:

  1. Gosh, this is certainly quite some course - what a lot of work. Fancy using silk organza for the first tracing - such a beautiful fabric to use, almost a shame. The topstitching looks wonderful. Enjoy the ballet :)

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    1. The things we do for the perfect pattern! You only need 1 yard of silk organza and it stays in one piece. Selvedges can still be used for reinforcing shoulder seams and I can reuse some of the organza for underlining. Now fingers crossed for the fit!

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  2. I take my hat off to you for attempting to make these! The back pockets look amazing, can't wait to see these finished ... J

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  3. I like how you stitched the back pocket. Look forward to seeing. It all finished.

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