After broken-in jeans I think cords are my favorite pair of pants. And I’m not alone in my adoration of corduroy (or manchester as it’s called in Sweden) – check this club out.
This is the second pair of cords I’ve sewn this year based on the jeans block that I drafted last winter. The corduroy is from the now defunct Timmel’s fabric and was part of my prize for the SWAP. It’s dressier and stiffer than most cords, so I was a bit worried it wouldn’t be slouchy enough for casual pants, but I think it works.
Waistband is lined with cotton shirting. This was trickiest part since the lining kept slipping during topstitching. I ended up using iron-on adhesive tape between the waistband lining and pants, which worked really well.
For making jeans I recommend reading Wendy Mullen’s book Sew U. Her step-by-step guide is extremely helpful The assembly order is completely different from the “normal” home sewing way and the end result is pretty similar to RTW jeans. Another tip is to always cut the waistband across the grain per Kathleen Fasanella’s recommendations. No more shrinking waistbands for me. This was a real eye opener, so many times I thought “hmm, my waistline must be expanding rapidly” after putting the jeans on after washing. When it was the waistband all along!
