The Ongoing Pants Saga, or, Why I Love Craftsy

Well, I finished the Vogue 1366 pants, and was so dispirited that I doubted I would ever see sewing mojo again.  They are a sad, sad pair of pants.  I'm not sure why I have such trouble fitting pants in the crotch area, but... yeah.  It was sad.  ANYWAYS.  I was poking around Craftsy.com and found the Jean-ious class by Kenneth King.  It's a class designed to teach you how to clone a pair of jeans that you already have that already fit!  Cue heavenly light!

So, I started in with a pair of pants that I love (these ones from White House Black Market, if you're curious).  They are awesome pants, but they are crazily expensive (at least for me), so they are a perfect object for cloning experimentation.  I got all the information that was detailed in the class from the pants, and then started in on the muslin.  Here's where things get funny.  You see, the originals are made of a cotton/poly/spandex blend.  I didn't have anything like that laying around (in fact all I had were scraps laying around), so I made the front out of white canvas and the back out of non-stretch denim.  I figured they'd be pretty snug, but that I should still be able to get a feel for the fit.  Uh, no:

Now, for those of you who have never really paid attention to how your jeans are made (and who could blame you, really), it would be easy to think that all that gaping is where the zipper goes, right?  Weeeell... you see those black snapped threads on either side of the gaping maw that is the front of my muslin?  Where those threads stop is where the pants are supposed to be sewed up to.  The zipper goes above that stitching. This bodice-ripper effect is what happened as soon as I tried to put my muslin on.

Yeah.

SO.  There was more stretch in those jeans than I had originally thought.  So, my sewing time has been devoted to going to the fabric store (Thank you, PacFab!), buying half-yards of all likely looking stretch denim, and making...

Daisy Dukes!  (Ignore the mess.)  You see, I'm not too worried about the leg fit, just the waist/hips/crotch.  DD's are wonderful test garments :)  The one on the left is a European denim with not too much stretch-- I could get them on, but there was no hope of getting them closed.  The middle is a 95-5 cotton/spandex blend, and the one on the right is a 75-23-2 (-ish) cotton/poly/spandex.  The fit on both the cotton/spandex and the cotton/poly/spandex was pretty close-- they close, but I think I'll add just a smidge on the outseams just to be safe.  But, Huzzah!  Onwards to fitted pants!