Fit and Sew Custom Jeans
Classic and Creative Sewing Techniques for Modern Patterns
Fit and Sew Custom Jeans is unique in that it addresses both the order of construction and fit simultaneously. Other books gloss over the fitting, having you guess your adjustments in the flat pattern stage. By the time you try on the jeans, it may be too late to fix areas with poor fit. If you could, you'd need to rip a lot of topstitching, a real chore. Helen uses a combination of tissue-fitting and fabric fitting. This means not using a typical ready-to-wear sewing order. See the chart on what size to choose based on the type of fabric you have. Fill out the Jeans Profile so you consider how fitted you want the jeans for how they will be worn. Prepare the tissue for trying on to determine rise, width, length, and crotch shape. Learn how to gauge how much smaller the pattern can be in width based on a stretch of the denim. There are many ways to do a fly front, but which is best for incorporating fit? This is why the author tested many different techniques using her order to see which worked best. She sewed a total of 31 pair of jeans for herself and others so make sure she was truly giving the best solutions for fit.
Pati Palmer, dubbed the FIT EXPERT by sewers around the world, has been inducted into The American Sewing Guild’s Sewers Hall of Fame. She is the author of 10 sewing books, editor/publisher of 23 more books and 18 how-to videos, and creator of eight Palmer/Pletsch sewing notion products.
From 1980 to the present Pati has also designed and written instructions for more than 200 patterns for The McCall Pattern Co. Prior to that she designed for Vogue. She has designed a half dozen jeans patterns for McCall's.
An international leader in the sewing industry, Pati has had her books and patterns featured in Family Circle, Vogue, Australian Stitches, and all of the major American sewing publications.
Helen Bartley is a lifelong student of sewing, and her empathetic teaching style is all the better for it. In 2008 she opened Seam Divas Sewing Lounge and has now made teaching sewing her full-time pursuit, having jettisoned traditional corporate life in 2016. With unbridled passion and contagious enthusiasm comes a desire to share—and this is what Helen Bartley brings first and foremost to her sewing lounge. It’s reflected in what and how she teaches, her deep dive into details and descriptions, and the way she interacts with students of all sewing experience levels.
Helen is also a Palmer/Pletsch Certified Sewing Instructor and Corporate Educator, and she teaches pants, knits and fit workshops in Portland, Oregon. She served as technical editor for the Palmer/Pletsch book Knits for Real People and as contributor, garment sewer, and model for both that book and the highly regarded book The Palmer/Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting. She’s taught hundreds of students, and has also shared her craft and inspired with her knowledge at numerous workshops and classes across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Helen learned sewing at her mother’s knee at a tender age, and has pursued this early and impressionable love in lifelong practice. She studied textiles, fashion design and clothing construction at Eastern Washington University (she also taught at the campus’s sewing lab). Helen Bartley knows sewing. Helen is also a guitarist and singer-songwriter who occasionally performs in the Portland area.
Jeannette Schilling got her Bachelor of Arts degree from Cal State Fullerton. She is proficient with InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, and Photoshop, on both the Mac and PC. Employed in the Portland, OR vicinity, she joined the staff of Palmer/Pletsch Publishing for 5 years. She found her niche with sewing book design and production, photo re-touching, extensive technical sewing illustrations, and content editing. This included photo sessions and trade show assistance. She went on to produce patterns for Saf-T-Pockets Patterns and illustrations for Sewing Savy magazine. Employed by a non-profit for over 10 years, she did the branding for fund-raising events and assitede in donor contacts and events. Currently Jeannette is assisting in book layout and illustrations for Palmer/Pletsch Publishing on a freelance basis while working part-time for Hot Off The Press, designing and producing scrapbooking papers, a quarterly mailer, product inserts, cutting-dies, chipboard and more! Eager to forge new ground both in-house or remotely, she is respectful of others and easy to work with. Accuracy, dedication, and flexibility are her standards, with an eye always for the highest of quality.
