Ever since I released the Dawn jeans sewing pattern I’ve had a lot of questions about how to adjust this pattern for use with Selvedge denim. If you’re not familiar with Selvedge jeans, they are sewn with a straight side seam to accomodate the self finished edge of traditional denim fabric woven on a shuttle loom. It’s known to be a very high quality fabric which wears really well, and many who love jeans are obsessed with them.
Though Dawn comes with four inseam cuts, when designing the pattern I had not considered selvedge denim which is a shame! So when I was making myself and Bunny some new Corduroy Dawn jeans to take on our holiday to Switzerland, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make the straight side seam adjustment and test it out for you.
It’s actually incredibly simple. You’ll need pattern pieces 3 and 4 of the Dawn pattern – these are the Front and Back legs of the straight leg view of the pattern. You’ll need to add some additional paper behind the pattern as we’ll be adding to the side seam and inseam.
Starting at the hip on the side seam, draw a straight line parallel to the grainline, all the way down to the hem. Square it off.
Next up you’ll need to measure the distance from the original side hem to the new hem and extend the inseam hem by the same amount. You will now square up, and draw a line parallel to the grainline all the way until you hit the inseam.
It’s important that we extend the inseam by the same amount as the side seam so that we can maintain the balance of the paints ie. so that we can make sure they still hang in a proportional manner and don’t lean to the side. You can skip this – many traditional selvedge jeans do have that tilt to them, but it will result in unsightly wrinkles which as modern makers we tend to dislike. So it’s up to you!
Lastly true the inseam using a curved ruler and cut out the adjusted pattern pieces. If you are sewing with Selvedge denim you will now be able to cut your pattern pieces with the side seam perfectly aligned with the selvedge.
I hope you enjoyed this Dawn Jeans straight side seam adjustment tutorial – if you have any questions at all please let me know in the comments!
For this particular pair of Dawns I used a lovely rigid blue corduroy that I had been hoarding for some time and it was a perfect choice for walking around in the cold Swiss winter.
I was so happy because I managed to cut the internal waistband facing and the pocket bags from the scraps of this gorgeous Liberty of London print that I’ve been hoarding for years. Moments like these unfortunately really confirm in my brain that hoarding is a super great idea.
It was so fun making these before our holiday and I was so incredibly warm walking around in them. I actually ended up sewing a mix between the tall and regular length as I wanted them to be long enough to be warm, and short enough not to get wet in snow. Living in Iowa for a few years really taught me to avoid wet hems! I am happy to report that no wet hems happened so i’m really happy with that decision.
I really hope to visit Switzerland again one day – it really was so magical and gorgeous. It’s amazing to me how the light is just so different from Perth. I’m so used to the blinding brightness of a Perth day, it was a delight to walk around without sunglasses in softly diffused light
