Sewing on the Waistband
Lay waistband piece good side down. | |
Fold waistband piece exactly in half and pin in place. | |
Open each end up a bit and fold them over onto the inside about œ to 1/3. Then close the ends together with a pin. | |
Sew along the folded edge (opposite the pinned side) with heavyweight thread with needle in right position (close to the edge of the fabric). Sew from one end all the way to the other. | |
Pin the waistband on upside-down all the way around | |
Make sure the band lines up properly with the edge of each flap of the fly. | |
Pin down both front pockets to make sure they stay out of the way. If you don't do this you will probably sew over them. | |
Sew around the waistband, but be careful to manually sew (using your hand to turn the wheel) over the zipper. Otherwise you could easily break your needle. | |
Sew all around the waistband removing pins as you go. | |
Now is a good time to sew in any tags.
Tag placement varies widely but they are usually in the back. |
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Carefully press (with an iron) the seam so it faces up from the inside all the way around. | |
Snip off the extra zipper just above the edge of the denim. | |
Cut the extra teeth off the zipper (the ones that are above the stitches). This makes it so you don't run over them and break your machine. | |
Taking the left side in hand fold the extra edge of the waistband over towards the inside and sew just above the corner down with a needle and thread. You don't want to sew the very corner because you need to tuck fabric under it in the next step.
These manually stitches hold the fabric in position while you sew it together with the machine. With out these it is almost impossible to make it look good. |
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Now fold the waistband down and fold the raw edge under the corner you just stitched above. Then stitch it in place.
If these steps seem unclear look at the pictures for the next side first. |
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Now do the same with the right side. | |
Fold the extra edge in then fold the waistband over. | |
Take the other edge and fold it under. | |
Stitch in place, penetrating all the layers of fabric. | |
If you would like to make an elasticated waistband now is the time to follow these directions Elastic Waistband Instructions (come back to this point when you are done). Fold the exposed edge under so the edge of the fold lines up with the first stitching you attached the waistband with. | |
Pin in place and sew all around the waistband using a thread that closely matches the shade of the fabric.
If Im using dark indigo denim I usually just use black thread. You can't really see it that well on the other side. |
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Turn the jeans the right way around and sew along the bottom edge of the waistband using visible heavyweight thread (with the needle in the left position). | |
When you get near the zippers make sure to manually turn the wheal to avoid damaging your machine. | |
You may need to turn the jeans the other way around and reverse your needle position to the right so you can sew all the way to the edge of the other side.
If you want to make elasticized jeans now is the time to put the elastic in. Now sew openings at the edge of the waistband closed. |
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To make the belt loops take a long strip of fabric about œ wider than the desired width of the belt loop. Fold the strip in half and sew it closed along the edge. | |
Using a croquet hook or a knitting needle turn the fabric inside out. This takes some effort. If you are using a croquet hook you can hook onto the side of the fabric and pull it in. If not you will need to sew one of the ends shut so you can push it through with a knitting needle. | |
Turn the fabric completely inside out. | |
Lay the fabric down so the seam is in the center facing up. Press in place. This side will become the back of the belt loop. | |
Now sew a row of stitches along each side keeping them equally spaced and equidistant from the edge of the fabric. | |
It should now look like this. | |
Cut the strip into five equal pieces. The length of these strips largely depends on your pattern, but they will need to be longer than the visible length of the finished loop by at least half an inch. | |
When sewing on the belt loops dont use thick tread. Us a fine thread that is the same color as the thick thread, otherwise youre going to have a hard time sewing them on. | |
Cut little triangles out of the edges of the belt loops. This makes them look better and it makes them easier to sew through. | |
Sew all the loops in place on the top portion of the waistband upside-down and backwards. | |
Fold the belt loops down and sew in place from the top using a dense zigzag stitch. | |
Fold the edges over onto the inside then sew them down in place from the top using a dense zigzag stitch. | |
Unless you have a machine that does button holes that are dense and rounded at one end then chances are the automatic buttonholes wont be very good for jeans. I have found that buttonholes are better when you do them manually with a zigzag stitch. I simply sew a thin triangle of zigzag stitches. Make sure the corners of the triangle overlap. | |
Place a pin through the left end of the buttonhole to prevent you from cutting through the stitching.
Using a seam ripper start at one end of the buttonhole and cut along until you hit the pin. |
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Your buttonhole is now finished. |
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