New Jeans

I had decided that I wanted to make a pair of pants which would "read" as jeans under things, but which would actually be a nice pair of flat-front pants that just happened to be made out of denim. The whole point was to get a pair of casual pants that would be suitable for any kind of hard wear I wanted to throw at it, and yet would look somewhat less casual than actual jeans. Since I generally wear something over the top of pants, the fact that jeans have all the detail and layers of fabric at the top doesn't do anything for me except add inches, and that is not really what I need. I wanted something that would be slim-fitting above the leg.


Front View

This is what I came up with. I used my favorite Double Burda pants pattern, leaving the leg width and shaping alone, and leaving the zipper on the side seam. I added an inseam pocket on the other side, and patch pockets on the back. I stitched the seams and then serged the allowances together, pressed them toward the back, and topstitched on the outseams, for a fake flat-fell look without the bulk. I also topstitched the patch pockets, around the inseam pocket opening, and the hem.


Pockets & Topstitching

I used the Hollywood Waistband technique, but I used a much wider elastic than I usually do since the denim needs a pretty sturdy underpinning. This is Textile Studio's 1 1/2" elastic. The top of the elastic sits at my waist, so it's almost a contour waist.

Inside Waistband


I wore these all day to see how they'd feel, and they're just as comfortable as I'd hoped.

Side View