Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Style Arc Georgie Jeans

Since my sewing goals for the year include making pants and the Curvy Sewing Collective's Curvy Pants Month starts in a few days, I sewed up some pants!


(Can we address the elephant in the room first? Taking photos of pants is impossible! Please forgive my overexposed butt close-ups.)



Today's leg coverings are the Style Arc's Georgie stretch woven jeans pattern. Style Arc describes the pattern thusly: "Georgie has all the details of a traditional jean with the exception that its pulls on. This elastic waisted jean has the latest styling and shape along with comfort as it sits on the natural waist."


I wouldn't agree that Georgie has alllllll of the traditional jeans details... for example, beyond the elastic waist, it has faux front pockets, a faux fly, darts on the back bum and some non-traditional topstitching (e.g. double topstitching on the outer leg seam rather than inner).


But you could play around with the details to your liking. And I'm pretty sure, if you're wearing a shirt that covers the elastic waist, no one but a fellow sewist would take notice of the fact that they're not traditional jeans.


My fabric is stretch denim I bought locally. Stretchier than other denim I've used for, say, my Birkin Flares, but not quite stretchy to the level of jeggings fabric.


The Georgie jeans are basically the pant version of their Charlie skirt pattern, which I made in olive stretch twill last year. As I did with the Charlie skirt, I found the waistband instructions a bit confusing and did it my own way because I couldn't figure out how to not have the elastic caught up in the side seams using the method in the instructions (sounded uncomfortable to me!). As such I have a line of visible stitching on the front, but it's barely noticeable (and no one will see it anyway because I plan to keep the elastic waist covered at all times!).


I wish the yoke was a bit more angled; I feel like it runs straight across my upper butt in a potentially unflattering way. But the likelihood of the yoke getting a lot of time in the sun is low since my shirt will cover it 90% of the time. So I am ok with it.


I moved the back pockets ever so slightly from the pattern markings, mainly to compensate for the fact that the topstitching on the center back seam is set to one side. I made them equidistant from the topstitching, rather than the center back seam, so technically they're not even, but they appear even. Optical illusion!


I've had good luck with the fit on Style Arc pants patterns and Georgie is no exception. The fit is pretty good straight out of the envelope (or off the printer, as it were). I'm sure there are some things I could fix for my next pair if I were so inclined (knee wrinkles, for sure... maybe a full calf adjustment? something else? anyone have any diagnoses?), but I'm pretty happy with them as is.


And the comfort level is off the charts! The waist is high enough that they stay up and suck all my fluffy areas in. Yes! Winning.