The joy of the Print on Demand service is that once you fall in love with a print you can choose which base cloth you want it in… but of course with decisions comes indecision. I fell in love with this print from the first moment it popped up on my screen, the vibrancy of the colours, the contrast of the purple with the pink as well as this geometric that isn’t exact and precise. I instantly knew I needed something in it and then remembered I’d been meaning to make my own jeans and went oooh, stretch denim well won’t that be delicious.
And my goodness is it delicious. I hadn’t used the print on demand service before so I was curious as to how it would be. Sometimes when fabric is printed on it feels like the dyes are on the surface, and you’re one scratch away from the under fabric being revealed, that is NOT what this is! This fabric is soft and doesn’t feel like it’s been printed on at all. It does take longer to arrive, but then it’s being made bespoke to you so I don’t think we can be mad at that, it just means you have to be a little more organised with ordering in advance.
The pattern for the trousers is the Ginger Jeans from Closet Core, I have had this pattern in my stash for far too long so was thrilled to have a plan for it. This pattern specifically requires a stretch denim as it’s a skinny fitting style. The pattern contains a high- and low-rise option, I opted for the high rise but still raised it further still as I find I like things to be very high rise and that my body is longer between my waist and hips too so lifting it always gives me more to play with. This did mean that I had to take it in at the waist too, but this was an easy adjustment before the waistband went on. I could have slimmed down the legs to make them more like a skinny jean, but I love the cut of these and how they are sitting almost like a mom jean on me, it feels like it works better with the fabric somehow.
The pattern for the top is the Solaris Waistcoat from Fibremood. Now this is meant to be lined but I decided that would take from the added comfort you get by working in stretch denim so opted not to. This meant I had the facings to contend with, but by topstitching them down it reflects all the topstitching in the jeans, and I think just absolutely works. I did a fit check on it after sewing all the panels together which highlighted the need to pull in the waist further for a closer fit, but being princess seamed this was such an easy adjustment and has left it being such a great fit!
Now the question I’m sure we all have about this… the pattern matching. I know it worry’s people so let’s talk about it in regard to this print. This is an irregular check, so it’s not going to fully perfectly pattern match! I was always focused when cutting out the pieces on trying to get a horizontal line up. A lot of the seams I’ve been working on are curved, so they won’t match all the way down anyway but by getting the horizontal lines working it looks right. This was particularly important on the centre front seams of both the jeans and the top however you may notice I didn’t get the vertical match right on the waistcoat. When cutting out I didn’t account for the overlap, so the print matches the wrong square, I toyed with changing the overlap but decided it was fine, mostly because the horizontals aligned. Considering your pattern match is one of those things that isn’t super complex and just requires a few extra minutes of consideration when you’re cutting out.
I always knew I wanted this fabric as a coord and I absolutely love it. It’s everything! I love the fact that making outfits this way gives me the option to wear them as separates as well as together, but the top also leaves me open to layer a long sleeve top under it too, so it crosses all the seasons.
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