Not Sew Genius

Aphorisms certainly have some truth behind them.  "If you knew better, you would do better."  That

sounds hopeful and positive doesn't it?  Well, sometimes I know better and I still proceed ahead full speed to my next wadder....or ex-boyfriend....or bad meal....the list goes on.  This time it was my jeans project from last month and the Craftsy jeans class.  In early May I earnestly followed Kenneth King's very explicit directions to copy a pair of jeans that fit well. Then I even stitched two sample pairs, just for fitting purposes and I was pretty darn pleased happy thrilled.  Wow, this system works!!!  I deliberately made one in the non-stretch recommended fabric and the other in a stretch woven, but with very little cross grain stretch.  There seemed to be only a little difference in the fit of either.  My pictures aren't terrific but here they are:

Mock up jeans in woven with very little stretch

Mock up in non-stretch denim

I wore them both around my sewing room and made the smallest adjustment to my pattern.  Maybe my first mistake was that I put aside this project for a few weeks and was: busy in the garden....we were on our little neighborhood garden tour in early June and I was also co-chair of the project....reading up a storm....books to follow further down....or on some lovely trips....the Winterthur Downton Abbey Costume exhibit, Longwood Gardens visit with concert and nighttime fountain display and A Prairie Home Companion broadcast at Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts.  Maybe all those things distracted me so much that when I returned to the jeans project I forgot all that I know about sewing the right fabric for the project.  I did exactly what Kenneth King said not to do and I pulled out a verrrrry stretchy but gorgeous deep chocolate brown micro cord that was almost like stretch velvet.  I ignored the early warning bells and then the later ones that told me to interface the zipper in such a stretchy fabric.  Ugh, they were awful.  They didn't fit like my favorite jeans or my mock up because the fabric was so very different.  Ripples and baggy, yuck.  By then I was so annoyed that I tossed them into the trash and took a break from my sewing room.  I'll return to the jeans project after getting my hands on some non stretch denim.  I'll return to that beautiful chocolate brown micro cord fabric and make myself a pair of Elle Style Arc pants later in the fall and they will be a much better pairing of fabric and pattern.  So, no successful sewing project to see here (Judy, your jeans are inspiring and are keeping me moving forward.)  I'll close with some pics from those trips and the books that kept me distracted late into several warm spring nights.  Here's hoping that your projects are working out better for you.....and that I listen better to experience and advice.

Rustic gardens at Winterthur Museum

Pictures to follow in the future

Pulled out several beds for replanting and reconfiguring

Not the new flower beds at our place.....but the old ones at Longwood Gardens

Our third visit to hear Garrison Keillor's radio broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion

We sat and picnicked on the lawn at Wolf Trap in Virginia

Four out of five stars from me

Three out of five

Five out of five and especially relevant to the sewists amongst us.

Two painful book group selections....this one and...

Three and a stars

Four out of five stars

Five out of five

Four out of five