First Attempt at Back Waist Jeans Alterations: The Double Dart Method

 I am so sorry to subject you all to this, but instead of pretty quilts we will be looking at pictures of my butt today.  Seriously.  Because one of my sewing goals last month was to finally, after sewcrastinating for over two years, attempt to alter some ready to wear jeans that were too big in the waist.  I DID ONE!  So now I need to write down how I did it and what I am thinking about doing differently next time, before I forget.  There will be quilty goodness in my next blog post, I promise, but today there is nothing but an alterations brain dump and a lot of butt pictures.  Well, let's get on with it!

Behold, the Booty Darts and the Altered Waist Band!

Completed Back Waist Jeans Alteration, 2.5 Inches Taken In, Dart Method

In true Rebecca form, I have spent hours pouring over various online tutorials for this alteration, agonizing over the pros and cons of each method to the point of paralysis.  So, when I saw that a local fabric and yarn shop was offering a Beginner Alterations class specifically on altering jeans by taking in the back waist and hemming the length, I decided this was just what I needed to get me over the sometimes insurmountable hurdle of task initiation.  If you're local to Charlotte, this class is offered regularly at Stash Charlotte and the instructor is wonderful, teaching methods that are definitely approachable for beginners and suitable for pretty much any domestic sewing machine, no specialized equipment or accessories required.  Class size is limited to four students and it's taught "lab style," each student working on their own alteration with plenty of guidance from the instructor.  Stash Charlotte is a Janome dealer and they provide machines for students to use in the class, but I brought my Bernina 475QE with me because I wanted to focus on learning the alteration without having to also adapt to an unfamiliar sewing machine.  

Stonefields Block 19 "The Oscillator," First of Two

Good Morning and Happy Friday, my lovelies!  It's been a busy week, but I managed to finish another appliqué block for my Stonefields quilt (pattern by Susan Smith).  Behold Block #19, "The Oscillator."

Stonefields Block 19 "The Oscillator"

I deliberately did not crop that photo because I wanted to show the difference between my hand stitched appliqué (the green and blue shapes at the bottom of the photo) and my machine stitched appliqué using the stitch I created with the Stitch Designer feature in my Bernina B990 sewing machine.  The size and spacing of the stitches is nearly identical and with Aurifil 100 wt monofilament thread in my needle and Microquilter 100 wt polyester thread in my bobbin, the machine stitches really do look just like my hand stitches in YLI 100 wt silk thread, even under inspection with bright lights and reading glasses.  I'm glad I took the time to customize that stitch on my machine so that I can switch between hand and machine stitching on the same project without any visible difference from one block to the next.

By the way, even using the sewing machine, this is "slow stitching" for sure.  It's like "hand stitching with a machine needle," as Harriet Hargrave said in a workshop I took with her years ago.  Very slow and deliberate stitching under bright lighting, one stitch at a time, constantly pivoting to keep those swing "bite" stitches perpendicular to the edge of the appliqué shape just as if I was hand stitching.  

Size 60 Microtex Needles Leave Visible Holes on Liberty Lawn, But They Will Close Up

The one thing that distracts me on this new block is that the needle holes are more visible on the machine stitched block than on my hand stitched blocks.  I use the smallest size 60 Microtex machine needle for this method, but my size 12 Bohin hand applique needle is skinnier than any needle that could go in a sewing machine.  The other difference is that the hand stitched block below used Tilda quilting cotton fabrics, and I used Liberty of London Tana Lawn prints for my Oscillator block.  The Liberty Lawn is a much lighter weight fabric with a finer, tighter weave and I think the different fabric characteristics are why the needle holes are so apparent right now.  I would expect my machine needle holes to be more pronounced with a batik fabric for the same reasons.  The good news is that needle holes close up when you wet the fabric yarns around them, so I'm not worried about it (I promise!).  It's just an observation.  Every time I step into my studio, my Gemini brain splits into two personalities, The Artist and The Scientist, both asking "What would happen if I tried it THIS way?"