Birkin Flares - I made my own jeans!

When I set about my challenge of making ALL my clothes this year, jeans are one of the few garments I was hoping I wouldn't need.  They always looked so complicated and difficult to make that I never thought I'd be able to! Nevertheless, I bought some stretch denim from a shop in King's Lynn a few months ago "just incase".  Then, I saw a tester call for some lovely flared jeans and without even thinking filled in the form and applied!

A few days later, I had an email to ask me if I still wanted to test the pattern, I hesitated for a few minutes before excitedly and nervously accepting and less than a week later, amongst normal Mummy of two life, here are my jeans!

So, a little more about them, these are the Birkin Flares by Baste & Gather and although they seem complicated to look at, with 70 detailed steps in the illustrated instructions each step is explained in detail bit-by-bit including all the instructions needed to add top-stitching, rivets and even a leather tag to the back to make them look shop-bought.

For starters, I used a 4% lycra denim which is more than the 2% content the pattern required and printed out the pattern. Luckily my measurements fitted the size 25 perfectly in all but length. The pattern is made with a generous 34" inside leg measurement which will be sufficient for most ladies even in heels.  As I normally only wear flats, I needed to take 10cm out of the length, this is done over 2 separate places to try and keep the correct shaping and proportion.  Due to needing to take so much out, the finished inseams twisted slightly to the front on the finished jeans, I actually quite like this as a feature but will look at adjusting the pattern pieces slightly different for my next pair.  Once the pattern was adjusted, I cut all the pieces using less than 2 metres of fabric!

Taking my time and reading all the instructions carefully, the first half of the pattern went pretty straightforward, the fly and top-stitching which came next was probably the hardest part with the hammering of seams (to reduce bulk when up to 8 layers of denim are needing to be top-stitched) the most fun and the installation of the rivets the most nerve-wrecking! 

The pattern gives you your own freedom when it comes to pocket design, I chose to leave this pair with plain back pockets but your imagination is the only limitation on those! For my next pair, I'm planing to embroider the pocket with the top stitching thread and add a leather patch (if I can source some!) with a continuation of the pocket design for a truly unique pair of jeans.

The total cost of making these was around £30 in fabric and materials, comparable to an average shop-bought pair and way less than a designer pair would set you back although likely much better fitting and complete with the satisfaction of having made them yourself! Now I have bought the needles, buttons and rivets, I have enough for a couple more pairs, so each new  pair would cost around £20 for fabric, zip and more top-stitching thread.

I really love these jeans and have plans for several more pairs in the near future, in fact, I have pattern pieces to test a skinny version sat on my printer right now so keep watching for details of those soon!

The pattern is on sale now with $2 off with the code 'birkinrelease' and the rest of the store has 50% off to celebrate the release too.  Sale ends midnight PST on 13th December. 

If you make a pair, I'd love to see a photo!

Jeans Pattern: Birkin Flares 
Top Pattern: Watch this space ;)
Fabric: ​http://www.thefentshopkingslynn.co.uk/