I made new jeans! And a new blue sweater! Very happy with both.
The jeans are another offering from smartPATTERN - their "girlfriend jeans". I asked the internet for a definition of girlfriend jeans and it gave me a bunch of marketing hype that makes no sense. And, since this pattern company allows a great deal of control over the design and fit elements of all their patterns, it's clear there is some latitude. I'm going out on a not-too-dangerous limb and saying that GF jeans offer a fairly curvy fit with straight and close fitting legs but otherwise they have all your standard jeans features.
Interestingly, the last jeans I made (in 2018) were the Closet Core Morgan Jeans pattern, which is described as "boyfriend jeans" and I wrote a
similarly confused bit on this very blog about what that meant, according to the internet. In comparison with those jeans, these are closer fitting and more curvy through the hips and thigh.
The smartPATTERN Girlfriend Jeans pattern allows customization for overall fit (based partly on how much stretch your denim has), waist height, leg shape, and numerous other variables. Check it out! So fascinating. Here's a summary of my choices. Pretty standard, except for the high waist. I'm pretty much over below the waist pants although my well-worn Morgan jeans are still the most comfy things ever.
As with my first smartPATTERN experience, I was impressed with the drafting and attention to detail in the actual pattern and the instructions.
I went straight to my Featherweight for all the topstitching and used high contrast gold, as is custom. At the waist, I inserted a snap instead of trying for a buttonhole as I've learned from past experience, apparently. However, I still had to look at a tutorial to get the snap attached. Luckily
this blog post supplied a link.
I added more decorative stitching on the back pockets.
The fit was really good right off the bat, which I was expecting given the custom pattern and all. They are definitely snugger fitting through the hips than the barrel leg jeans. This is not only due to the different style but also the fact that this pattern was drafted for 10% stretch denim. My fabric had more like 20% stretch but I am happy with not-actually-tight jeans. These I would describe as close fitting.
My only quibble is with the width of the legs. The pattern gives you 2cm seam allowances at the side seams, which was a very good thing. I ended up tapering the legs to be 2 cm wider at the hem and through to the upper thigh. They were strangely constricting on my calves until I made that adjustment.
So overall I'm very satisfied with these jeans.
Here's a rear view in case you are interested.
On to the sweater. This is a hybrid knit - I hand knit the yoke from the top down according to a pattern (
Filix Sweater by Valentina Bogdanova). Then I hung the live stitches on my machine and knitted down to the ribbing by machine.
I'm very proud of the fact that I figured out the right amount of short-rowing to get the yoke to sit correctly on my shoulders (higher in back). I used Designaknit (DAK) to draft the pieces.
I had purchased an enormous skein of yarn at Koigu Farms in June and this has to be almost the fastest in-and-out-of-stash knit in my knitting history. I thought the yarn was completely dark blue but found when I untied it that it had in effect been tie-dyed. I chose to use the purl side as the right side in the hope that the white patches would be less concentrated.
