 So today I'm showing you guys how to sew a pair of jeans. To do this, we'll be using the Ranger Jeans pattern, which is my first ever sewing pattern. You can snag it from the link in the description down below because you will need it to follow along with this tutorial. So it also comes with written instructions as well, different printing formats like US Letter and A4, also A0 for copy shops, and then there's also a projector file as well for those who use projectors. And I will say my printout version of the patterns are trimless, which is really cool. So for the US Letter and A4, you don't have to trim any side pieces. You literally just line them up. I believe you line up the left edge with the red line for US Letter and then the left edge with the black line for A4. But I love that quality about them because whenever I'm using a PDF pattern, the thing that takes the longest to print it out, cut the edges, tape it, you can print it out and go straight to taping. And if you wanna do none of that, then you can use the projector file. I wanna keep this intro pretty short and sweet so we can just jump straight into the how-to, but if you've purchased the Ranger Jeans, thank you so much for your support. It really means a lot. Now let's make it appear together. All right, let's start with preparation. What you wanna do is tape your pattern piece pages together. A good trick I have is to use a highlighter. This will allow you to identify what your size line is and then on every pattern piece, you can go through and highlight that size. And once you do that, you'll wanna cut out all your pattern pieces and when you're done, you should have 10. So if you weren't able to select your own size and layer and just print that one out, you'll end up with some of these dots right here on the front. All you have to do no matter what size range you print it out is start from the smallest size of your size range and count to your size. So I printed out the size 24 to 34. So this first dot is gonna be 24. The next dot is 26. The next dot is 28. And lastly, because I cut out to 30, this third dot from the right side is 30. So I'm just gonna highlight this 30 dot. So I remember that that's my dot. You'll do the same for the waistband piece. So this first notch represents 24. Then we have 26, 28. And then this notch right here is 30. So I'm gonna highlight that one as well. You can do the same with your center front notch. So this first one is 24. Then we have 26, 28, 30. To sew this up, I'm using a 12 ounce denim from Joanne. I think it was in collaboration with Lucky Brand and you can refer to your cutting guide for how you need to lay out your pieces. But you wanna just make sure that you can cut the pieces that need to be on the fold, on the fold, and that the pieces that only need one are cut separately and not on a fold. And don't forget your waistband and flat facing also need to be cut out and interfacing. Here's the interface I use. It's designer light interfacing 845. You can get that at Joanne or any other local fabric shop, I believe. And also the further you get into your instructions, you'll see that you'll need to cut out a strip for your belt loops. Here's my setup for sewing jeans. It is a little intense because there's a lot that goes into it. So I have one machine with all-purpose thread at the top and in the bobbin for regular sewing, the seams that will not be seen. And then I have a second machine with top stitching thread at the top, which is thicker with all-purpose sewing thread in the color that matches. In the bobbin, this is to top stitch my seams down. And then I also have my serger to serge my edges to make sure nothing frays. I don't think you necessarily need two sewing machines. You can just alternate one with regular sewing and top stitch sewing, especially because the only thing that changes is the top thread, the bobbin stays the same. But I do recommend having a serger. This will make sure that your jeans last. So now let's jump into construction. We're gonna start with our back pockets. I'm using this awesome heat ruler that I got off Amazon. I'll link that down below. This helps you with your folds to make sure you're doing the exact seam allowance and I love using it for pockets. So following the instructions, I am folding down the top of the back pockets towards the wrong side, 3 1⁄8 of an inch. Then I'm gonna flip it over and then fold it right sides facing at the fold line indicated on the pattern piece and give that a press as well. I'm gonna do the same with my coin pocket. Once I do that, I'm gonna go ahead and sew those down. Make sure I back stitch at the top and at the beginning. For the back pockets, I'm gonna sew those down at 5⁄8 of an inch seam allowance all the way around and with the coin pocket, I'm gonna do that at 3⁄8 of an inch seam allowance all the way around. And once I'm done with that, I'll take it to the serger to make sure that my edges do not fray. Now I'm using my point turner, which I'll also link down below to press out the corners of my pockets and the reason that I sew at the seam allowance all the way around is so that I can now use that seam allowance line as a pressing line with my iron to make sure that I'm pressing at the right seam allowance. I think this is a super helpful trick and something that saves me time when it comes to guessing like what's 5⁄8? What's 3⁄8 of an inch? I've already sewn a line and so I'll just press with that line making sure it's looking at me, but then I see the line and I'm pressing on top of it. After this, I take them to my top stitching sewing machine and I sew a top stitching line across the top securing that flap we just created. Now we're gonna interface our fly-facing. What you'll wanna do is turn your fly-facing piece with the wrong side up, grab your interfacing piece you cut out and make sure that the glue side, which is the rougher side, is facing down towards the wrong side and you're gonna give that a press with your iron until the whole piece of interfacing is sealed to my fabric. I also went and surged the sides to make sure they don't fray in the future. And the last thing I'm doing for a prep is creating my belt loops. So what you'll wanna do is fold each side by a quarter of an inch seam allowance and then once you press that down, fold one more time in half and give that a good press. And once you do that, you can top stitch both sides down and this creates the strip for your belt loops. And lastly for the fly shield, what we're gonna do is fold it right sides facing and sew straight across the bottom at 3 eighths of an inch. Flip that right side out, give it a good press and then surge the raw edge. Starting with the back of the pant, what I'm gonna do is grab my pattern piece and using my awl. And you know what? I'm gonna stop saying I'm gonna link things down below. The whole toolkit of what I'm using today will be linked down below in this video. But using my awl, I'm gonna punch through the indicated guides for my back pocket. I'm gonna use my heat erasable pin to mark that place. Once I do that, I can pin my pocket in place and sew it down with two rows of top stitching. This is me tying those threads in the back to make sure that they do not come apart. This is optional. You can back stitch with top stitching, but sometimes I don't enjoy that because it's really bulky. So I like to just sew a straight line without back stitching and then pull all my threads to the back and tie them. So now you wanna grab your yoke piece and you wanna make sure, because I actually sewed this wrong in the beginning, that the smaller side of your yoke is actually on the outside of your pant piece. But once you do that, you're good to flip the yoke right side down, pin it in place and sew it down at 5 eighths of an inch seam allowance. I surged it as well to make sure it didn't fray and now I'm gonna press my yoke up, making sure that seam is nice and crisp and then give it two top stitching lines. When you're finished with that, you can go ahead and do the other as well. And once you've finished doing that to both pattern pieces, what you'll wanna do is line them together, right sides facing. I like to make sure that the yoke seams are lined up, but then from there, I'm just gonna put some pins in place. Once you sew that together at 5 eighths of an inch, seam allowance and surge that edge, you'll flip your piece right side up and press that seam allowance to the left of the pant. This is where ironing is extremely helpful because it allows you to get a nice crisp seam before you go back and top stitch. So over the yoke seams when I was top stitching, because it's so thick, I did have to walk my needle through that seam. I think this is an important step so you don't break needles, but this is what your back should look like once that back seam is top stitched. Moving on to the front, you're gonna cut off a quarter of an inch from the left front piece and surge that all the way down. And then with the right front piece, surge that top ledge and then also the bottom scoop. Now we'll put that aside and move on to our pockets. Grabbing my pocket facings, I'm gonna use my awl and heat erasable pin to mark where my coin pocket should go, pin the coin pocket in place and double top stitch it just like I did the back pocket. I'll also surge the curve so it does not fray and then I'll pin it in place to my pocket bag and sew it on all sides at an eighth of an inch. Once that's complete, I'm going to now join my pocket bag to my front piece by joining them right sides facing at the pocket opening. Once that's done, I'm gonna sew it down at the 5 eighths of an inch seam allowance, give it a surge and then move to the ironing board to press that seam towards the wrong side of the front pant. This just makes sure that when I flip the pocket bag towards the back, that it flips nicely and evenly and then do a double row of top stitching at the pocket opening. With the wrong side of the front pant facing up, I'm gonna flip my pocket bag in half, give it a good press and sew and surge the bottom edge of that pocket bag only. Now that that's done, what I'm gonna do is flip the whole piece right side up, pin my front to my pocket bag and then give it a stay stitch on the outside edge starting at the bottom of the pocket bag up to the corner and over to the front fly. And once you have both fronts with their pockets attached, you can lay them down together right sides facing, grab your front piece and using my all the heat-erasable pin, I am marking the dot that I need to sew my front and back together. But after that's pinned in place, you're gonna sew it down at five-eighths of an inch seam allowance. Now grabbing your fly facing, you are going to turn it right side down and place it in place on the right front of your pant and then sew it in place at half an inch seam allowance until you get to your dot. Once that's done, we'll go over to the ironing board and press that fly facing open, making sure that the seam allowance is facing the left. We're going to edge stitch that seam allowance in place. Once that's done, you're gonna grab your zipper and making sure that your zipper pull is facing your pant. So the right side of the zipper is facing the pant. What you'll wanna make sure is that the right side of the zipper crosses over that seam that we just edge stitched by like an eighth of an inch. This will help us with the overlap as we finish putting our fly together and then sew down the left side of the zipper at an eighth of an inch. Once that's done, our fold is almost complete but what you'll wanna do to the left front of your pant is fold back the seam allowance by three-eighth of an inch. Here I am again using my heat ruler to make sure it is three-eighth of an inch. Flip your whole front right side up and you'll wanna match the left front to the zipper tape where the right front is sewn. This will make sure that your zipper is sewn in evenly. You'll sew that down as close to the edge as possible. If you find that you have some tension right there where the seam meets, what you can do is cut into your seam allowance so you will grab some scissors and do a small snip right up to your stitching line. This will allow for more mobility in your pant and hopefully mitigate any tension you might have at that point. So once that's done, we're going to add our fly shield and lining up the edge of our fly shield with the edge of the zipper tape and sew right on top of your existing stitching line. Now that we have our fly facing and fly shield in place, I'm using the fly facing piece as a guide for my top stitching line. Basically, I wanna make sure that this top stitching line hits the edge of my fly facing along the curved side and meets at the bottom opening correctly. I'm gonna use some chalk to mark out that line and once that's in, I wanna make sure that now I move my fly shield to the left and out of the way because we don't want to accidentally sew this top stitching line on top of our fly shield as well. Once I did my first row of top stitching, I used that line as a new guide for my second row of top stitching that I did probably 3 eighths of an inch inside of that first line. And once I tied those lines off, I went ahead and started at the bottom crotch seam and sewed up towards my zipper seam to reinforce the crotch seam. When I got up towards the zipper, thankfully I'm using a plastic zipper, but if you're using a metal zipper, you have to be very careful. But even with a plastic zipper, it was a little chunky, so I had to walk my needle up as far as I wanted it to go, turn it, walk it back down off of the zipper and then continue sewing the rest of the seam like normal. Now that that's done, that's our completed front. And now what we'll do is take our completed back and match it right sides facing to our completed front and use our notches as a guide to pin those side seams together. I do recommend doing one side at a time because this will allow you to sew, surge, press and top stitch with more accessibility if you take it one by one. So now I'm sewing that at 5 eighths of an inch seam allowance all the way down, making sure to remove pins as I go. Now that that's done, I take it to the serger like I said, just one side at a time. I'm not cutting off too much because I want enough to top stitch down. And now I'm just pressing that seam allowance towards the back of the pant. And once that's nice and pressed and flat, I'll run through with my top stitching machine and run two rows of top stitching on that seam. And now I'll repeat those same steps to the other side, but this time when I top stitch it down, I have to be more careful because now I'm creating a tube, so I have to be careful and I'm not sewing the other side by accident. But once both sides are sewn, surged and top stitched, now you can sew together your inseam which will not be top stitched. But what you want to make sure is that your seam lines from the front and the back match together in the middle. Once that's sewn and surged, I'm using my tailor's hand to go in and press that seam allowance towards the back of the pant. This ensures a nice fit and starts to train your seams on how they're supposed to lay. Once this ironing process is done, this is a great time to try on your pant to see how they're fitting. These are how mine were fitting. Once again, I'm using a size 30. Now we're gonna work on the waistband. So grab both your waistband pieces, go ahead and put one to the side. Now with the one you've chosen to keep, make sure the wrong side is facing up and then the glue side of the waistband interfacing is facing down and you're going to fuse that to the fabric piece. Grabbing your second waistband piece, you're going to press up the bottom edge, five eighths of an inch. This will help us top stitch our waistband in place cleanly once it's attached to the front. But once you've pressed up five eighths of an inch, on the whole piece, you'll grab both your waistband pieces and right sides facing, pin them together and sew down just the top edge at five eighths of an inch seam allowance. Once that's complete, you'll surge that edge and here I like to surge pretty close to the seam line to reduce bulk in the waistband. But once your two waistband pieces are pressed and surged, what you'll want to do is making sure that your seam allowance is facing the left, which should be the side of your waistband that's folded up five eighths of an inch, you're going to edge stitch that seam allowance in place. This will make it easier to turn your waistband in half once it's attached to the front. Grabbing your belt loop piece, you're going to cut five four inch strips and then finish the top and the bottom edges with the serger. Once that's complete, we're going to use the belt loop guide on page 20 of the instructions to place our belt loops in the right place. I'm using clips to hold them down and then taking it to my machine and sewing them down at half an inch seam allowance. Once those belt loops are sewn down on all five sides, we're going to take our waistband and to make sure I get my waistband right, I like to notch right in the middle, line up that middle notch with the back seam and then with the combination of pins and clips, clip my waistband right sides facing to my hand. And then taking my time, I'm going to stitch that waistband in place all the way around at five eighths of an inch seam allowance. To reduce bulk, I'm going to cut that seam down to a quarter of an inch and then use my tailor's ham to press that seam allowance up towards the waistband. This will provide us a very clean area to top stitch. So once that's done and before we top stitch, you'll want to fold down your waistband piece right sides facing on both edge openings and stitch your waistband down right along the edge of your center front and for the other side, right along the edge of your fly shield. So here I'm sewing right along the edge where it matches up with the fly shield and the other side, I'm sewing right along the edge where it matches up with the outer edge of the fly facing. Once that's complete, you're going to cut down that seam to reduce bulk. This also helps with the installation of the buttonhole and button, but then I'm going to take my point turner to get a nice crisp edge. Once that's done, I can now flip my waistband towards the back, give it a press just to make sure it stays in place and then turn it back to the front and pin that down from the front, making sure I'm catching the back folded edge as well. This will allow me to stitch in the ditch which is basically stitching in that front seam we created when we sew the waistband to the front. For this whole project, I've been using a zipper foot and I love a zipper foot specifically for this as well because you can easily see where your seam line is. Then I take the finished waistband over to my top stitching machine and do one row of top stitching, normally around all four corners of the waistband, but as you can see, I was running out of top stitching thread and did not want to go get more. So I just did a bottom row of top stitching. Now I'm tying that top stitching off and cutting it. Moving on to the belt loops, I've folded them down three eighths of an inch and using a hammer to smush down some of that bulkiness to make it easier to go through the machine. I'm doing this on all five pieces and then clipping them in place. Once they're all clipped, I'm taking them to my sewing machine and top stitching. Now this was kind of a struggle because I'm using 12 ounce denim, so it was very thick. So I had to walk my needle through most of these, but if you just take it slow and take your time, you should be able to get it done without breaking a needle. Once that was complete, I surged the hem of both my pant legs and then with my pant inside out, I folded up a quarter of an inch, stitched that down at my longest stitch length, then I flipped it one more time at a quarter of an inch but now sewed it down for real at a stitch length of three all the way around. This is a nice way to hem your pant without having to take it to the iron constantly and fold it at a seam allowance. Once that's complete, we can move to button installation. How I like to mark the start and end of my buttonholes is by grabbing my button and marking at the edge on both sides. This will give me a good place to start when I'm using my buttonhole foot and function of my sewing machine. To do this, I bring the stitch dial to the buttonhole icon. I move my stitch length anywhere between zero and one and then make sure that my width is all the way to six and that my needle position is in the middle. And from there, your buttonhole lever, you'll pull it down and then push it into place. And then you should be able to start and finish your buttonhole all in one go. I'm using a little bit of fray check to make sure that this doesn't fray when I open it and I let that sit for about 10 minutes. Next, using a pin to make sure I don't cut through my buttonhole, I'm opening it with my seam ripper and then once my buttonhole is open, I can now use it as a guide for where my button will be. And using my awl, I'm pressing through to make a hole where my button will go. I will flip it right side down and hammer it together. And here are my finished ranger jeans. I already know some modifications I wanna do with the next ones, but I'm really proud of how these turned out. Once you finished your ranger jeans, don't forget if you posted on social media, you can use the hashtag ranger jeans so that way I can find them and then you can also tag me at happily dressed. Just to recap, I made a size 30, some things that probably changed, even though this is my pattern. I would make it just a tad bit longer because I like it when it stacks at the shoe just a little bit more. This was designed for me, which is someone who's 5'8". So depending what your height is, you might also have to add or shorten the length. But congratulations on finishing your ranger jeans. I cannot wait to see them. There are definitely more patterns in the works. One might be a jacket pattern coming very soon. Until then, I will catch you guys in my next video.