Yes I’m writing another book! And this time it will be about jeans making, a topic that I’m very passionate about and have been blogging about since 2009, when I made my first jeans sewing tutorial series.
Back then the jeans sewing patterns had instructions that bore very little semblance to how RTW jeans are made, so I decided to do some reverse engineering and shared my findings and how those methods can be applied to us home sewists. I’ve also started to update that series with better pictures since those initial 2009 photos don’t live up to the current visual blog standards!
Anyhow, these days the landscape has changed, and there are several jeans patterns that use contemporary sewing techniques, but I still think there is a need for this kind of book.
What will the book contain?
The basis will be clearly photographed, step-by-step instructions, just like my previous books, since I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about using this format.
I will also cover fabrics, notions, seam techniques, tools, fit, denim history and lots of other stuff too. And if you have any specific topic suggestion please let me know!
Will there be patterns in the book?
Not full on garment patterns. BUT, the book will contain loads of pattern templates for things like different pockets designs, zipper fly and pocket templates, fly shield patterns and other details that will help you hack your chosen jeans pattern and make it your own. For the print book, there will be a link to a downloadable pattern pdf kit. Luckily these pieces are often so small that they can fit into one or, at most, two sheets of paper.
Will the book be unisex?
For sure! I will cover everything from how to mimic raw Japanese denim selvedge jeans to sewing skinny stretch jeans. I recently interviewed a guy who works in jeans manufacturing and I learned that most jeans are in fact constructed very similarly, but there are some little details here and there that make them unique.
I also borrowed a variety of jeans from his collection that I photographed yesterday, and it’s really fascinating to look inside at the details, and I was very inspired to share how we can replicate those at home. He also told me that a pair of jeans takes 9 minutes (!) to make in the factory that he works with.
When will this book be out?
In 2020 for sure, but don’t know exactly when. My last book Master the Coverstitch Machine took almost 10 months to produce, so hopefully this one will be done in a similar time frame.
That said, I’m currently taking steps to give myself more space to work on this book, since I don’t think I could muster doing another book while working full-time at my day job and doing all the other sewing content that I do too.
So these are my new book plans! And as I said, I’d love to hear what you would want from a book about sewing your own jeans.
