Bryce Jeans Tutorial

Please welcome Mandy back with another fantastic tutorial! Last year Emily shared how she mashed the Sandbridge skirt and Bryce Cargo Pants to make jeans, and now Mandy is sharing another tutorial to draft a jeans yoke just using pieces from the Bryces. I love the different options depending on how comfortable you are with hacking and mashing patterns and drafting small pieces. Once you find a great fitting pair of pants, you can use the pattern for anything!

Hi! I began seriously sewing clothing for myself about 5 years ago, but had not mustered up the nerve to attempt pants until the beginning of last year (2018).  I really didn’t think I had the skill but it turned out, as with most patterns, you just gain the skill as you sew something.  I was so fortunate to be a part of the tester group for the Bryce Cargo Pants, and that really launched me forward with the confidence and desire to move on to jeans!  I learned SO MUCH in that group, and ended up with an incredibly well-fitting pair of pants.

Fast forward a year, and I’ve sewn 3 pairs of Bryces, 3 pairs of Ginger Jeans (from Closet Case Files), and now 2 pairs of Bryce Jeans.  That’s right – I took that gorgeous Bryce pattern and made it into jeans.  Why?  Simply put, because I couldn’t seem to replicate that great fit from the Bryces into the jean pattern I was using. 

So here is the tutorial I came up with to make the transition from a darted rear pant, to a yoked rear jean, and hopefully it will help you do the same!  Surprisingly, it’s not all that difficult – you just need a little time to lay some patterns over top of each other, and the patience to do a muslin (it’s worth it to make sure you have the right size and shape of yoke).  Here goes!

1.  Draft a Yoke.

You actually don’t need to literally draft this, the Bryce pattern has all the elements you need to do it.  I traced a new copy of the Bryce Back piece, so that I could cut and hack to my heart’s delight.  Once you’ve cut out the Back piece, fold the paper to close the dart.  Tape it to keep it shut.  Now draw a diagonal line from the side to the rear rise, at the very base of the closed dart (Fig.1).  Cut along that line.  And you have a yoke piece (Fig. 2)!  Sort of.

Now you’ll want to smooth/slightly curve the top and bottom of your yoke (as shown by red line sin Fig. 3).

2.   Muslin for Fit.

At this point, I made a very quick muslin, to see how the yoke looked (and because I was really excited).  I discovered that my yoke was too big for my liking (it came down too far on my bum).  So I took a little off the bottom of the yoke, and added that same amount (I think it was about a half inch) to the Back piece (Fig. 4).  In order to figure out this amount, I roughly measured the yoke from some RTW jeans. Then I muslined again, just cutting out the back pieces and the yokes, and resewing to front pieces.  Worked like a hot dang.

3.  Draft Front Pockets.

This step is not necessary, of course, but if you’d like to make a full conversion to traditional jeans, you will want to draft front pockets.  This is pretty self explanatory – all you need to do is take your fave jeans pattern (or the Sandbridge Skirt pattern!), lay it under the Bryce Front pieces, and create a pocket where the Bryce slash pocket is.  (Don’t forget to draft a pocket facing, coin pocket, and pocket bag). Fig. 5.

And that’s it!  I used the nice wide waist band from the Bryces as I really like how it sits, and I used the bum pockets from another jean pattern.  These are basically the elements you need to get you started, then the world is your oyster!  Or at least the me-made jeans world 😉

Thank you so much for this amazing tutorial, Mandy! I absolutely love both pairs you made, the fit is perfect!