Misty Pull-On Jeans Sewalong Parade of Jeans

Friends, here is the moment you all have been waiting for (maybe)!  The Misty Pull-On Jeans Link Party is open for business.

The Details:  You can begin posting at any time.  You are welcome to post as many pair of Misty Jeans as you are willing to make.  You can post pictures until the end of the day (EDT) on November 30th, 2015.  Then the voting begins.  Voting will continue until days end (EDT) December 10th, 2015.  The winner will receive a prize packet including a $50 fabric.com gift certificate, and 3 patterns of your choice from Style Arc.  More prizes may be added as the contest continues.  Good luck, and let's see those jeans!

One more thing...please head over to the Curvy Sewing Collective and post your Misty Jean Photos on their flickr group.  Nothing would make me happier than seeing lots of jeans on the CSC, so that we can help other women overcome their fear of sewing pants!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Finished Product - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans Sewalong

Friends, I am so glad to be finally posting this post!

Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans - Plus Size Edition

I want you all to know that I have not made any alterations to the pattern in these pictures.  This is how the jeans sewed up straight from the package (although I did size down 2 sizes).  You can see the wrinkling across the knees is still there.

Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans from the back

I feel pretty alright about the fit through the behind.  My sweet husband didn't notice that the building had left dust all over my back, so if you can, please ignore it.

Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans Knock Knee Adjustment Needed

I am not mad at the fit here in the front.  It is just as good as RTW if not a little better.  I knew going in that I need a knock-knee adjustment, but I really wanted to sew for the sewalong straight from the pattern.  I think it can be intimidating for beginners when we do a sewalong and then start making all kinds of adjustments.  I just wanted to show what you get (or should I say what I get?) without any changes.  I just want to be clear on that.

I didn't photograph the tummy area of the jeans.  Be mad at me if you want.  The fit there is pretty good.  I will be lengthening the front crotch curve a little in the future, but that is the only adjustment I will be making.  The elastic ended up coming in about an inch below my natural waist.

Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans Sway Back Adjustment Needed

Those smile lines at the bottom of my bum are the only issue with the fit of the back of the jeans for me.  This indicates that I need a pants swayback adjustment.  Just a minor one though.  Look at that pattern matching!  Not only did they match up from side to side, but the pattern continues on through the yoke.  Boy is my elbow sore from patting myself on the back!  My pockets have disappeared in to the fabric.

Now, with the pictures out of the way, let's just talk about these pants for a minute.  These pants are comfortable.  I imagine that these feel the way those pajama jeans from TV informercials felt.  Some of that may be the fabric I chose to use, but I have heard that same sentiment from other sewists as well.   What isn't comfortable about them is that exposed elastic waist, but in all fairness I have never liked the feel of elastic against my skin.  I will be going back and removing the elastic and encasing it with the jeans fabric.  When I make these in the future, I will only make them with encased elastic.  I do believe that I will make more of these in the future, but with all the necessary adjustments.

Let's talk about how you can get in on the fun of the Misty Jeans Sewalong.  If you search #mistyjeanssewalong on Instagram, you can see where some sewist are having discussions and posting pictures of their Misty Jeans.  Please feel free to join the conversation!

On Sunday, November 15th I am going to post a link party that you all can link your Misty Jeans to after you make them.  You will be able to post pictures of your Misty Jeans from any online picture posting source (flickr, Google Photos, etc.) as well as from your blog if you have one.  The link party will stay open for posts through November 30th.  Then, we will start live voting for the jeans on December 1st.  I can't quite tell you about the prize pack yet, but promise I will have all the details up in the link party.

So tell me friends, how are you doing on your Misty Jeans?  

Sewing the Crotch Curve and Mock Fly - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans Sewalong

Friends, we are in the homestretch here!  Those of you who follow me on Instagram got a little sneak peak yesterday at something that is starting to resemble jeans.

Today we are sewing the crotch curve and mock fly.  I don't really like that word crotch, but I can't really call it the lady business curve, or the down there curve.  Can I?

Our first order of business is to pin the crotch curve together.  What that means, is we want to take the two pieces that we now have, and pin them together at the seam that goes around the crotch.  This also encompasses the mock fly area.

Starting at the mock fly begin placing your pins through your two garment pieces.  As you can see in the picture above I made a little boo boo while I was cutting my fabric.  Fortunately, this nick in to the seam allowance is more shallow than the actual seam allowance.  Otherwise, I would have had to re-cut these pieces.

As we pin our way around the curve, we want to make sure that all of our notches are aligned.  I like to put pins at each of the notch points, or in the case of a double notch like the one above, I will just pin in between the two notches.  

Can I just talk about something off topic for a sec?  In every photo of my thumb, it looks like I have a dirty thumb nail.  I don't.  I don't know why it looks this way either, except that I have really deep nail beds that have a very dark red line between the pink and the white part of my nail.  But the rest of my nails don't seem to look that way.  Anyway, I just wanted to say something about it, because it really bothers me.

This photo is of the area where the two inseams come together through the curve.  I always push the seam allowances in opposite directions so that I am not sewing through 6 layers of material at this juncture.  I like to put my pin straight down through the two inseams so that when they are sewn they will line up nicely.

I forgot to take an up close shot, but I also made sure that the seam of the yoke lined up evenly so that it will match after sewing these two pieces together.

At this point we are ready to sew this seam.  You are going to want to use your lightning bolt stitch here because this is probably the most stretchy seam of the entire sew.  This seam is sewn with a 3/8 inch seam allowance. If you are like me and have paranoia about only having one line of stitching holding your arse in, go ahead and sew a second row of stitching at the 1/4 inch line of the seam allowance.

Once you have finished your yoke should look something like this.

Now can you read the word that is printed on this fabric?  Friends, I am going to have the word WASH all over my arse.  I have mixed emotions about this! Thing is, you really and truly don't see it in the print, but the camera lens picks it up like crazy!

 Hopefully the outside of your crotch curve seam looks something like this.  If you are new to sewing and your seams are off by a 1/4 inch or so, don't beat yourself up over it.  My best advice is that you have to think about lining things up where the seam allowance is instead of at the edge of the fabric.  Does that make sense?  Remember too, hopefully no one is going to be getting down and inspecting your crotch curve seam.  So unless you sit in a very un-ladylike manner, no one will ever see this seam.

Serger Sewists - IF that is a big capital IF, you are really comfortable with your serger this is a great seam to sew with it.  I would personally fold the mock fly back and start sewing at the start of the crotch curve that meets with the mock fly, and sew out to the yoke end.  Then, I would flip my garment and sew from where the mock fly meets the crotch curve up to the waist.  Unless you have mad serger skills, I WOULD NOT attempt to sew this as one long seam.  Only you know your limits, and you could mock this seam up on some practice fabric and see how you do.  Just remember once the knife cuts the fabric, there is no going back.

Now on to the mock fly.  The first thing that we want to do is mark the sewing line from the waist to the end of the fly curve.  You want this line to be parallel to the straight edge of the mock fly and to join to the stitch line for the rest of the crotch curve.

A good ruler and tailor's chalk are important tools for sewing.  A box of multi color tailor's chalk is relatively inexpensive and will last you for a very long time!

Once you have your line drawn, go ahead and pin the fly area together.  You don't want your fabric to shift while you are sewing this line.

Now, sew a straight line ending a few stitches in to where your chalk line meets the crotch curve.  I used a straight stitch here, because these stitches are not going in the direction of the stretch of my fabric.  I used a 2.5 stitch length, because I wanted a tighter/smaller stitch for this application.

Hopefully, in the picture above you can see that the stitching ends a few stitches in to the crotch curve seam.

Now, with our mock fly spread open with the right side of the garment facing down, we want to press the mock fly towards the right.

Again, using our clapper here will help get a nice crisp seam, so if you have one, use it.  If you don't have one, might I suggest a heavy book.

Once the mock fly is pressed flat it will look something like this.  Is your fabric fraying like mine is?

When we flip the fabric over to the other side (the right side), you should have  a crisp seam.

So that we know where to stitch, you want to feel the edge of your mock fly through the fabric, and then use your chalk to mark along the edge.

Now let's put our double needle back in to our sewing machine.  The instructions did not call for a double needle here, but I like the continuity of it, and I like the way the double needle is going to catch the edge of the raw fabric.

I didn't pin the beginning of the seam here, but I did want to throw a couple of pins in to the curve, because that is where the fabric is most likely to shift.  I placed the stitch/chalk line, just to the right of my left twin needle.

Remember to stitch forward and back to anchor the seam, and then go ahead and sew all the way to edge of the mock fly, also ending with a reverse and forward stitch.  It may take a little practice to end your stitching right at the edge of the fly seam.  Don't worry about it.  Again, who is going to be down there inspecting your sewing prowess?

This is what the finished mock fly will look like from the front.  If you wanted to make this look even more like a real fly, you could add some top stitching down the straight seam of the fly, and even a bar tack.  Those are all design details you can decide about on your own.

This is what the back side of the mock fly looks like when sewn with the twin needle.  See how the raw edge is encased between the two rows of stitches?  That is why I chose to use the twin needle and used the alignment that I chose with the stitch/chalk line and the left needle.  Does it all make sense now?

That is all for this step, Friends.  I can't believe that this project is almost finished, can you?  Don't worry if you are running behind, because obviously I am too!  You are going to have until November 15th to get your Misty Jeans made if you want to try to get in on the prize action.

Up Next:  Sewing the Side Seams

Sewing the Inseam - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans Sewalong

Well Friends, so much for one post a day to get caught up!  Today let's talk about sewing the inseam of the Misty Pull-On Jeans.  This is actually a pretty simple step.

First let's match up the two sets of pattern pieces.  You want to match left front pattern piece aka the piece with the coin pocket to the back right pattern piece.  If you are looking at the back pieces on their right sides (right as in correct or the part that would be seen from the outside) then the back right (directional in this context) pattern piece would be the one where the wide part of the yoke is on the left and the outer narrow part of the yoke (hip edge) is on the right hand side.  Does that make sense?  Once those two pieces are paired, you know that the remaining two pieces pair together.

Align the Notches as You Sew

With right sides together align the inseam for sewing start at the crotch end of the seam (the pointy end) and align the fabric matching the notches as you go.  I don't pin the inseam.  I get the crotch end started with a lightning bolt stitch with a 3/8 inch seam allowance, and sew through the curve with the lightning bolt stitch.  Once I have exited the curve and will be sewing the straight line that goes all the way to the ankle, with my needle out of the fabric, I switch to a straight stitch and sew a 2.5 length straight stitch all the way down this line.  As I go down the line, I use the notches along the way as the spot where I am holding the fabric together to insure that things line up properly.

The reason that I switch between stitches, is I need the stretch across the curve that the lightning bolt gives, but at the straight part of the inseam there is no stretch in the direction of the stitches, and I don't like the way a lightning bolt stitch feels rubbing against my inner thighs.

I don't know about you all, but one line of stitching is not enough to convince me these pants will stay sewn and on my derriere, so I go back and sew a second line of stitching at the 1/4 inch mark for security.

Repeat these steps with your other set of pattern pieces and this step is complete.

Serger Sewists-  You can serge this entire seam, and there will be no need to go back and sew a second row for security.

Hope this set of instructions is clear, I was lite on photos.

Up Next:  Sewing the Crotch Seam

Adding the Coin Pocket - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans Sewalong

Hello, Friends!  The next step in making our Style Arc Misty Jeans is to add the coin pocket.  The directions state, "For the coin pocket fold the seams inward and stitch with a twin needle across the pocket top, pin the coin pocket where marked on the right side pocket bearer, once in place stitch across the base and twin needle each side."

Here are the pattern pieces that we will be working with.  The Pattern Pieces are named the Right Front Pocket and Coin Pocket on the pattern pieces, however the Right Front Pocket is referred to as the Right Side Pocket Bearer in the instructions.

Right Front Pocket Piece and Coin Pocket Piece

The first thing that we want to do is to press back the seam allowance at the top of the coin pocket.  So, set your iron to the silk setting, get out your trusty clapper if you have one, and press that seam allowance back.  A little tip here.  When you are dealing with fabrics that may be hard to fold, if you will warm the fabric with the iron first and then fold the fabric, it will help the fabric keep a sharp crease, and make it easier to press the crease flat.  Does that make sense?  Just don't burn your fingers!

Top Edge of Coin Pocket Pressed Down

Now, we want to run a twin needle stitch across the top of the coin pocket.  Our twin needle should still be in our machine, but just for a reminder we are using a Universal Wide Twin Needle (Size 6.0),  I am still using a 3.5 stitch length.  Somehow, I managed to not take a picture of this step.  I lined the folded edge of the pocket up with the 1/4 inch marking on my presser foot, and ran a twin needle stitch all the way across the top of the pocket.

Once the top of the pocket is stitched, it is time to move on to pressing the side seam allowances of the pocket down.  Once you have done that, this is what your coin pocket will look like (pardon the blur).

Pressed Back Edges after Twin Needle Stitching Top of Coin Pocket

Now, we need to pin the Coin Pocket to the right side of the Right Front Pocket.  Make sure that your folded seam allowances stay folded in when you do this.  Line your Coin Pocket up with your markings on your Right Pocket Piece and pin the Coin Pocket in place  I only pinned the pocket at the top corners.

Coin Pocket Pinned to Right Front Pocket/Pocket Bearer

With our Coin Pocket pinned in to place, it is time to twin needle stitch down the left and right side of the pocket.  We will stitch and reverse stitch at the beginning and end of each seam to anchor the stitches.  You want to start your stitches on the top row of twin needle stitches that run across the top of your coin pocket.

Twin Needle Stitching the Coin Pocket to the Right Pocket Piece

Coin Pocket Twin Needle Stitched to the Right  Pocket Piece

Now, we want to set our machine up to do whichever form of stretch stitch that we have chosen to use.  In my case I am using the lightning bolt zig zag with a 3.0 stitch length.  You should also remove your twin needle from your machine, and insert your Universal 80/12 needle, or whatever needle is appropriate for your chosen fabric.  Refer back to the Sewing the Yoke post if you need help remembering which needle to use with your fabric.

Lightning Bolt Stretch Stitch at 3.0 Stitch Length

Now it is time to stitch across the base of the coin pocket to close the pocket bottom.  I once again have lined the fabric up at the 1/4 inch marking on my presser foot.  You want to start your stitches about 1/2 inch from the Coin Pocket on the Right Pocket Piece.  Stitch and reverse to anchor your stitches.  Now stitch all the was across the base of the coin pocket and about a 1/2 inch beyond, remembering to reverse your stitches at the end of the seam as well.

Stitching the Base of the Coin Pocket

Once you have finished, your pattern piece will look something like this.  You can either snip your threads close on the front side, or pull your threads through to the back and snip them.

Finished Front of Right Pocket Piece with Coin Pocket Attached

View of the Back of the Coin Pocket Attached to the Right Front Pocket Piece

That finishes off this step.  How are you all coming along on your sewing?  I just can't wait to see what everyone does with their Misty Pull-On Jeans.

Next Step: Facing the Pockets and Joining the Pocket Edges

Sewing the Back Pockets - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans Sewalong

Friends, the first week of the Misty Jeans Sewalong is drawing to a close.  Are you making progress?  Have you even started?  I know that some of you have already got your jeans ready and are just waiting to see what kind of goodies might be coming in the end.  We will get to that soon enough.

For today, let's talk pockets.  Specifically the ones that are going to be on your behind.  As Megan pointed out a few posts back you may want to check the size of the pockets in comparison with some of your RTW jeans to see if they are to your liking.  You can easily size them up or down with a clear ruler.  Or trace the one's you like from your RTW jeans and then add a 3/8 inch seam allowance.  Let me know if you need help understanding how to do this, and I will break it down.

Today's step states, "Press back the seam allowance on the back pockets, stitch across the top with a twin needle stitch, pin the pocket to the back as marked on the pattern, once in place stitch around the pocket with a twin needle stitch."

Back Pocket with Top Edge Pressed Down

First thing you need to do is press the top of the seam allowance down for the pocket.  Remember only the Silk setting on your iron, and use your clapper, if you have one, to get a crisp fold.  Hold off on pressing the other sides of the pocket.

Twin Needle Stitching the Top Edge of the Back Pocket

Now, your twin needle should still be threaded and ready to go from our last post.  Go ahead and sew across the top of the pocket with the twin needle to get a nice clean finish to the top of your pocket.

Pinning Back the Pressed Seam Allowances on the Pockets

Better View of the Twin Needle Stitching at the Top of the Pockets

Now let's go ahead and press back the rest of the seam allowances.  I pressed the two bottom allowances first before pressing the sides in.  I feel like this gives a more neat appearance.  If you have a bulky denim, you may want to trim your seam allowances at the corners, just don't trim them too aggressively.

Now, this is the point that the way I do this differs from how it is laid out in Style Arc's directions.  When sewing pants/jeans I will finish them, put them on and then decide where to place the back pockets.  I have even learned to do this with welt pockets or dummy welts, because there have been some real placement issues.  For the sake of this sewalong, I am going to follow Style Arc's instructions, but then explain my method at the end.  Mmmm kay?

I told you not to mark your pocket placement back in the beginning, but now I am telling you, lay your pattern on top of your pattern piece and mark those pockets (or wait for my other method).

Pocket Placement Marked with Chalk

I pin the seam allowance under at all the corners, and then go ahead and pin the pocket to the pants at the two upper corners and at the center bottom of the pocket.

Pockets Pinned in Place

Back Pockets Pinned in Three Anchoring Points

The reason that Style Arc has you sew the pockets on at this point in construction is because you are carrying on with your twin needle eliminating the need to switch back and forth so much, and pockets are easier to sew in to your garment when your garment is still in the flat.  Do you all know what in the flat means?  In the flat is before you start sewing all the seams together that take your garment from 2 dimensional (flat) to 3 dimensional (having complex curves so as to envelop our curvy bodies).  Prime examples of seams that make garments 3 dimensional are inseams, outer/side seams, and crotch curves.  In shirts your 3 dimensional seams would be darts, sleeves...I hope that you get the idea.

Twin needle sewing of pockets can be a little tricky.  Most of us are used to pivoting our garment around the needle when the sewing takes a turn, but you can not leave a twin needle down and pivot since there are two needles there instead of one.

So you can either sew your twin needle edges as individual sides, or you can carefully lift your presser foot and pivot your fabric without the benefit of the needle being down in the fabric to hold your pivot point.

To sew them as individual sides, you will sew each edge as an individual seam, reversing your stitches at the beginning and end to anchor your thread.

First Seam Sewn

Here we have the first line of stitching finished.  Remember to reverse stitch at the beginning and end to anchor your stitches.  It is fine to reverse stitch when you are using a twin needle.

Aligning Needle to Start Second Seam

Line the right twin needle up with the right line of stitches.  You will have overlap on the left side stitches, which is what you want.

Second Seam Finished

This is what the first two finished seams look like.  You want to continue sewing these individual seams all the way around the pocket (remember not to sew the top of the pocket shut).

Finished Pocket

This is how your finished pocket will appear.  You can see where the inside row of stitching overlapped while the outside row lined up and connected to the previous row of stitches.

Example of Both Seam Methods - The outside set of Stitches is Pivoted and The Inside set of Stitches is Individual Seams

To sew the pockets with the pivoting method, you simply sew down one side to the lower edge (still anchoring at the beginning with a back and forth stitch), lift your presser foot and carefully turn your fabric so that the right line of stitching stays in line with the right needle, but your presser foot is lined up to sew in the direction of the next seam line.  Continue doing this as you work your way around the pocket until all the edges (except for the top) are sewn.

Starting to Stitch at the Top of the Back Pocket

Sewing Down to the Point at Which the Fabric will need to Pivot

Serger Sewists - You can do all this work on your serger if you have a coverstitch function.  I highly recommend putting your pockets on at this stage if you intend to use the coverstitch, because it will be monumentally harder to do once the inseam and side seams or outer seams are sewn.

Both Back Pieces with Back Pockets and Yokes Attached

We are all finished with this step.  Yay!  Our pants are starting to look like something that might actually be pants.  Albeit wavy ripply pants.  On October 23rd - Adding the Elastic Waistband and Finishing Touches, I will give a tutorial of how to set your back pockets once you have mostly finished the garment for those of you who would like to wait and place them where you personally would like them to be.

If any of you are sewing along and are at this step, please let me know how it is going and don't hesitate to mention any tips that you have or ask any questions.  Also, did you notice that my fabric has a word written all over it?  It wasn't until I was reviewing these pictures that I caught that.

Next step:  Sewing the Coin Pocket

Side Note:  I need to take my DSLR camera to be cleaned so I apologize for the mix of camera and phone pics.  My sensor is having a hard time focusing in certain lighting situations right now.

Sewing the Yoke - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans Sewalong

Friends, here is our next step in the Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans Sewalong.

Step one in the pattern states, "With right sides together sew the back yoke to the top of the back, follow the notches, press the seams upward and twin needle the yoke edge."

I am going to make no assumptions about your sewing prowess.  So let's start with the idea of putting the right sides together.  Hopefully, you went with a denim that is not as crazy as mine.  The right side of your denim is the side that you would be able to see when you are wearing the denim.  Are you following me?

With right sides of the back pattern piece and the yoke piece together, make sure that your double notch lines up.

Putting Double Notches Together - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

I pinned the fabric at the first notch.  Then checked the edges of the fabric to be sure the seams lined up correctly.

Notched Seam Allowance - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

This notched edge (above) is where I intend to start sewing.  I aligned the notches at this edge and pinned my pieces together.  I will be honest in that I don't normally pin seams, but I wanted to take that step, because I feel that it is important to many beginners.  Did you figure out that Style Arc gives you a notch to show what your seam allowances are?  Yep, that little notch is 3/8 of an inch in, and let's you know this is where you should start your sewing.

Seam Notch Allignment - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

On what will be the far end of your seam (the center back edge), there is a notch in the yoke, and no notch in the back pattern piece.  At this end of the seam, it is important that your fabric line up at the seam, so you will have an extra little triangle of fabric sticking out above the notch.  That is proper alignment.  You didn't do anything wrong.  If that little triangle annoys you, just snip it off after you have sewed your seam.

Now that you have gotten your pattern pieces ready to sew together, it is time to get your sewing machine set to sew this seam.

Lightning Bolt Stitch - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

 I am using the #4 lightning bolt stitch on my machine, though the #5 zig zag would also be perfectly acceptable here.  The point is you want to pick the stretch stitch that you prefer.  Some people will also sew this with a straight stitch, but to do that you have to stretch your fabric to its max stretch as you go, and I don't suggest that method for beginners.

Serger Sewists - If you are using your serger, this would be one of the seams that you want to serge.  Just make sure you use the 3/8 inch seam allowance instead of the normal 5/8 you get with most patterns.

Schmetz Universal Needle - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

Let's get a proper needle in our machines now.  I chose the Schmetz Universal 80/12 needle for this project.  Though this is a stretchy material, at it's heart it is woven.  So, I went with the universal needle.  As for size, my denim isn't thick or heavy and I am using normal everyday thread, which is why I chose the 80/12 size.  If your denim is heavier (more denim like) you may want to use the Jeans Needle in the 90/14 size.  If you are using a knit jegging material, go for the Stretch Needle in the 90/14 size.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Now it is time to thread our machines (I hope we all already know how to do that), and get started.

Throat Plate 3/8 Seam Allowance - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

I have aligned my fabric so that the seam allowance notches are centered with my needle, and my fabric lines up at the 3/8 inch marking on my machine's throat plate.  I did tack back and forth to anchor the stitch.  Just be careful if you decide to do this, because your machine may want to eat the fabric.  Ask me how I know!  Now, just sew your seam all the way to the center back edge.

Puffy Seam -  Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

Once your seam is finished your piece(s) will look something like this from the right side.  Can you see that there might just be a pair of pants coming together yet?  This seam is going to need to be flattened for proper finishing.

Iron Setting - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

Get out whatever trusty iron you use, and set it for the Silk setting.  I want it a little warmer than synthetic, but I don't want to melt or compromise the lycra in my fabric, so nothing warmer than silk just to be on the safe side.

I will be ironing from the wrong side (inside) of the pants.  This is the, "Press the seams upward," part of the instructions.  So you are taking your seam allowance and folding it upward towards the top of the yoke piece.  At this point you want to press your iron on to your fabric for 5 seconds.  No steam needed.  As you move across the seam with your iron make sure that the seam is being pulled taught so as to lay flat.  In other words pull at the yoke piece with one hand, and the back piece with the other so that your stitches are flat against the ironing board and no extra fabric is beneath the seam line.

I used my clapper after every pressing.  The clapper will help to quickly draw the heat out of the fabric and keep your seam crisp.

Pressed Yoke Seam - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

After pressing your seam will appear flat like this.  Note how the pattern of my fabric is aligned across the seam because of how I lined the notches up when I was laying out the fabric.  This was discussed in the Cutting Out the Pattern post.  

The final step in this phase is to twin needle the yoke edge.  Here are some things you need to know about how this step went.

Schmetz Universal Wide Twin Needle - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

I used a Schmetz Universal Wide Twin Needle.  You can decide how wide you want your twin seam to be, but to me this looked the most like RTW jeans.

I threaded my twin needle according to the directions for my machine.  All machines are different, but I did do a tutorial a while back on twin needle sewing.  You can read that tutorial here.  It might help.

Twin Needle Alignment - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

I am not trying to break my arm patting myself on the back here, but look at that pattern line up across the seams!  I lined the seam up with the 1/4 inch line on the left side of my universal sewing foot.  By following that line, my stitches will stay straight, and my folded under seam allowance will stay under the needles.  Make sure to check that your seam allowance is still folded in the proper direction.

Stitch Length/Twin Needle Function - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans 

I decided on a 3.5 for my stitch length and set my machine for twin needle stitching.  I like this length for top-stitching on jeans.  Now, just sew the length of the seam with your twin needle.

Serger Sewists - If your machine has a coverstitch capability, you will want to use that function here, instead of a twin needle in your straight stitch machine.

Once you have sewn both of your pattern sections (left back/yoke and right back/yoke) you are finished with this step, and should have something that looks somewhat like this.

Finished Back and Yoke Pieces - Style Arc Misty Pull-On Jeans

Your pieces may look a little rippled.  That is fine and normal.  If you give them a little stretch the seams will look flat and wonderful, just as they will look stretched across your backside.

Friends, tell me am I being too in depth here?  I don't want to bore you all to tears, but at the same time, I want even a beginner to be able to understand the process here.

Next Step:  Sewing the Back Pockets