Welcome to the Breaking Ground Blog Tour 2019 hosted by mahlicadesigns. This year over 25 bloggers from around the world are joining together to break new ground by trying a pattern designer that is new to them, try new techniques, new styles, or whatever way they want to push themselves. (Read on for Giveaway info)
When Melissa of Mahlica Designs posted a call for bloggers for the Breaking Ground Blog Tour, I had to check it out. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but quickly found out. It’s trying something new; a new to you (and me) designer or skill. Breaking ground with a new to me designer sounded like fun! I have plenty of patterns from designers I’ve never tried. It was tough narrowing down the choices.
Thread Theory is a Canadian company that had several men’s patterns that I admired for a long time. I loved the details and style of some of the pants, jackets, and sweaters. I finally bought the Jedediah Pants during a rare sale with the plan to make shorts for my son. Then it sat and sat in my account for several years before I decided I’d better sew them up before Clay graduates and goes off to college! There are no layers (boo hoo), so I traced off his size 30 (the smallest one), cut out the pieces from some red chambray, and got them half sewn. The instructions have you sew flat felled seams on certain parts of the pants. Working with fabric that frayed terribly, I didn’t want to deal with flat felled seams, so I set the whole project aside.
After a few months, I decided they needed to get finished and off my table. So back I went to the directions. I skipped the flat felled seams in favor of serging and topstitching. That worked out fine. The order of construction is different than any other pants I’ve sewn and I wasn’t happy about the strange (to me) order of things. The inseam and even the outseam was supposed to be sewn and finished before sewing in the zip and fly. That would mean I would have to try keeping all the fabric of the shorts out of the way while maneuvering the fly installation. So, I changed the order to inseam, fly, then outseam; which worked out just fine.
The shorts version is supposed to be longer with a roll up cuff hem. Clay is wearing his shorts shorter these days, and the longer legs were too tight to even roll up once, so I trimmed off some fabric and went with a regular hem. The waistband instructions were difficult to follow, I tried sewing as written, but mine was not turning out correctly. I ended up sewing it in a way that made sense to me without any problems. The belt loops were no problems at all.
In the end, the shorts look pretty good. Unfortunately, they are too tight in the hips and legs for Clay. If any reader has a guy to fit into these, let me know and I will pass them on (US addresses). Waist is 30″, inseam about 7 1/2”.
Will I use this pattern again? Maybe. Some day I may get the urge to make a pair for my husband.
After this experience, will I sew another pattern from Thread Theory you ask? Well, that depends. I won’t be rushing out to buy another pants pattern, but I wouldn’t mind trying a sweater or jacket. Also, to my surprise, the website has changed drastically since I’ve been on it last; and they now carry patterns of other designers. If you are sewing for your guys, this is the largest selection of mens patterns I’ve seen! Support the Indie designers, small businesses and new companies! You may hear of some new ones if you follow the tour this week.
Oh, and one more thing… Thread Theory has the best tutorial on installing jean rivets that I’ve seen! I started using it years ago when I made my first pair of jeans and is how I found the company.
Enter the raffle below and check out the breaking ground from other bloggers on the tour by clicking on the links.
The Full Tour includes all these creatives… we hope you’ll visit us each day:
Monday March 11– That’s Sew Lily, Sewing A La Carte, Mijn 11jes & ik
Tuesday March 12– mahlicadesigns, Embrace Everyday, Jot Designs, auschick sews, Raising Stripling Warriors
Wednesday March 13– Musings of A Seamstress, Very Blissful, Sew4Five, Just Sew Something, Hazelnut Handmade, Crafting Through Time, Tales From A Southern Mom
Thursday March 14– Make It Sew with the Bear and Pea Atelier, Ronda B Handmade, SequioaLynn Sews, Sewing with D, The Sewing Goatherd, OOYAmade, My Golden Thimble, Custom Made by Laura
Friday March 15– Sew Cute Couture by Kathy, Sewing Novice, Ronda B Handmade, Momma Bear Sews, MeMade, My Golden Thimble, Lulu & Celeste
Breaking News: our tour sponsor Phat Quarters is offering 2 patterns of choice from her pattern shop to one lucky winner.
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We’d love to see how you’re Breaking Ground this month. Share with us what you’re working on by using the hashtag #BreakingGround2019 across social media.
Sewing with D 