So, I’m pretty much due for a new pair of jeans. It’s been over a year, believe it or not, since I last made myself a pair, and not because I’ve stopped wearing my me-made jeans or anything. But apparently when you have more than two or three pairs in rotation, jeans last a lot longer. Who knew. But there’s some red denim in stash that’s getting louder and louder…
Anyway, as my me-made jeans age and acquire that broken-in appearance that’s so much a part of the jeans look (to the point where we pay hundreds of dollars for a good worn finish), I’ve noticed one subtle, yet nagging difference between my me-mades and storebought jeans.
It’s the ripple.
The Ripple
You know what I mean. The way the fabric between the two lines of topstitching makes this little repeating wave, which wears into bands of light and dark. It also happens along the non-topstitched edge of the outseam, wherever the seam allowance habitually falls.
Left: storebought; right: me-made
And it doesn’t happen, (or barely, barely happens) even after years of wear, on my me-made jeans. Now my first thought, of course, was “what sophisticated little wear-roller are they running along all the seams in their big jeans factories?!?” Then, of course, my brain kicked in—this feature is far too universal (especially on my husband’s sturdy work-wear, no-fancy-finish jeans) to not be inherent in something about the jeans-making process.
And then it hit me. (Hush, I can be slow if I want to.)
Shrinking. Because, like a good little sewist, I pre-shrink my fabric and then construct my pants, whereas commercial jeans, from what I understand, are shrunk after construction. (Can you imagine trying to launder huge industrial rolls of denim?) So that characteristic ripple is probably the result of post-stitching shrinkage. Which is why my jeans have comparatively little ripple (and if I was really good and pre-washed my denim multiple times, as is often recommended, they probably wouldn’t have any ripple at all), and even brand-new dark-washes from the store, like the ones above on the right in the left picture above (how’s that for confusing), have a well-developed ripple.
Now, I’m not so concerned about this for the red jeans, but in general it’s bugging me. And it’s bugging me more the more I think about it. It’s one of those legitimacy issues. Jeans are supposed to have it. If my jeans don’t, they’re not “real jeans”. Which, yes, is all in my head. But it’s still one of those things, y’know.
So yeah, I’m seriously considering, when I run through my current set of denims (most of which have been pre-washed already), trying to enlarge my pattern so I can shrink my jeans after construction.
Bad idea? Probably. Even with doing test-swatches. I mean, from what I understand it took jeans companies ages to figure out how to wash their jeans and still get consistent sizing, which is why, at least in North America, they didn’t usually sell pre-washed jeans until the 80s (or sometime thereabouts.) My mom talks about how you always bought so many inches larger in the waist and longer in the leg than you needed, and just hoped that it would work out when it came out of the wash.
But I want the ripple, dammit. And I don’t want to have to sit there and sandpaper each individual fold by hand. 😉
So what do you think? Is the ripple worth it?
Tanit-Isis Sews 
I say do a bunch of test swatches! I’ve thought about denim shrinkage a lot and the following is what I plan to do as/when/if I ever get around to sewing a pair of jeans for myself one day 😉
Take an unwashed swatch and accurately baste (no back stitching so it won’t hinder the shrinkage) on a very long stitch-length and loose-ish tension (again so it doesn’t stay-stitch the fabric & stop shrinkage) a square 10cm x 10cm (10cm ‘cos it’s easy to then do the maths later to calculate the percentage shrinkage ;)!). Overlap the stitching lines by 2cm or so beyond each corner. And cut the fabric bigger than the 10cm – maybe 16x16cm? I’d then say make 3-4 identical swatches – wash them all together for the first wash, and then set x1 swatch aside (dry + press + wash it the same regular-way you intend to launder your jeans). Wash the remaining swatches over + over – until you have a selection of swatches ranging from washed x1 up to say washed x3 or x4 times – you can then gauge if the denim keeps on shrinking wash after wash (label then as you go – so you don’t forget which one is which).
If you used say red thread to baste with the straight-grainline, and say white thread for the cross-grain – you’d then be able to calculate from the finished swatches if the fabric shrinks different amounts across the different directions (I’ve read somewhere before that fabric can shrinks different amounts on the straight grain vs. the cross-grain).
Yeah, that sounds about like the proper course of action. And like a lot of work. LOL. Maybe with a topstitched seam in each test square, too…. /sigh.
I think that if you don’t pre-wash you’ll real problems due to skewing of the fabric caused by the twill weave (twisted leg seams among other things).
Yeah, that’s another thing to think about. Hmm.
I have nothing constructive to say about the ripple, since it’s actually a feature I’d prefer to minimize (but you are right that it’s one of the characteristics of jeans).
However, I do want to say that I WANT A PAIR OF RED DEMIN PANTS!!! AAAH if you make them, I’m going to have be be jealous and makes all sorts of plans and daydreams about making my own! I actually managed to find a store here that sells jeans and trousers that fit me, so the pressure to make them have eased a bit. And I bit the bullet and bought myself a pair of teal “straight leg” (but really tapered) jeans. I LOVE them, and have been daydreaming about a red pair ever since.
Good luck on your experiements on obtaining that ripple! And on your pair of enviable red denims.
Teal sounds great, too! Yeah, I keep seeing red ones in stores. I’ve been sitting on the denim since last spring sometime…
What a timely coincidence! I’m about to make another pair of jeans, and I was wondering if I could just use the un-washed denim and shrink later … not so much for the ripple, though what has been seen can not be unseen and now it bugs me, too 😀 My reasoning is more that my paper pattern is roughly two sizes too big now, as I have lost some weight since I first made it, and I’m plain too lazy to draft a new one … I’ll be following your findings with baited breath, lol!
Hmm, I hope you don’t wait on me because it will probably take me a while to get to this (if only because most of the denim I have right now has already been pre-washed). LOL at your outgrown pattern. I’ve actually been thinking I need to upsize mine a tad… >_<
okay, so you think YOU’RE slow on the uptake? i must be missing something altogether here. i sew, not to emulate factory clothing that doesn’t fit right, wear well or get cut off-grain ( i think that’s where the rippling comes from, btw. a combo of thread shrinkage and fabric off-grainage). i sew to dress better than that at a fraction of the cost. why make dreck if you can make the jeans i see in the right-hand picture? why duplicate something just because you can? people send their jeans to the dry-cleaners to avoid those ripples. those pants aren’t called DUNG-arees (to be worn with shit-kickers) for nothing. i must be losing my edge because i don’t know when jeans stopped being work and play clothes and became high style. and if they’re still play clothes, what difference does it make if they have a ripple? actually, now that i think about it, i have ripples and i don’t like mine either. i don’t think mine are from shrinkage, though.
i just read claire’s post and yes, she’s absolutely right. fabric shrinks much more lengthwise than crosswise, especially in the first wash. also, the waistband is cut on the length grain of the fabric so it wants to shrink the same degree as the pants length. the thing that keeps it from shrinking the full amount is that it’s anchored to the body of the pants. that’s why the waist is tighter after you wash your jeans and then they get looser while you wear them – they’re stretching back out. the legs shrink up and stay shrunk unless you pull them down to stretch them back out.
did you know that jeans will continue to shrink almost forever? after a while you don’t even notice it because the amount is so minute, but it keeps happening. don’t think that after the first few washes in hot water they’re done. (maybe in cold water and line dried)
I am, admittedly, from a generation that lives in jeans, and wants their jeans to look good. But still like jeans. And the ripple is just another of those *look* things. Why do jeans need a fly, or a hammer-on button? I don’t know, but they don’t quite look right without it. I can’t imagine sending jeans to the dry-cleaners, though (but I do always wash in cold water and hang dry. Stretch denim should never go in the dryer).
I hate the ripples, they refuse to lie flat and be ironed into submission. So, for me, no the ripples are not worth it, and would be another one of the many reasons I intend to make myself a pair when I reach my goal weight.
I think the jeans you sewed look better than the ones with the ripples.
Wait, you iron jeans? WTF? 😉
Yes, I iron jeans (she said hanging her head in shame), I line dry my jeans (most of my clothes, for than matter), and as I don’t wear stretch denim, they have to be ironed, otherwise they look like caca and are too stiff.
LOL! I hang-dry mine, too, but I guess the stretch factor is a difference. They soften up and feel and look fine within a few minutes of wearing them.
I was just contemplating this issue myself. I hadn’t thought about the shrinkage thing, but you are probably onto something there… I’m totally on the fence though. On the one hand, I want my handmade clothing to look as professional as possible, and for jeans, I think we’ve all accepted and come to expect the ripple. On the other hand, I feel what 2barbara is saying too. Isn’t this why I sew? So my garments can be free of the imperfections that we as a society have just come to accept as we gobble away fast fashion? Of course, I’m also way to lazy to laboriously wash swatches and grade my pattern for each new piece of denim, so I think I’ll continue to be ripple free by default. 🙂
Yeah, I have been trying to tell myself that the ripple issue is a non-issue for a long time. But I can’t seem to stop thinking about it…
I wonder if you can make the hems ripple if you twist them a little, you know the way a bias hem will ripple sometimes? It might take some fiddling, but it could work…
Those little ripples always bug me, haha! So I guess I should make my own jeans to avoid the ripples. So in my perfectionist mind, I’d say you made an improvement! But I can see why you might want the ripples to make the jeans look authentic. One other thing that has annoyed me with my store bought jeans is that some of the seams twist like the seam was sewn down to the left on the top of the leg and then at the bottom they sewed the seam down to the right. Yeah that bothers me haha
Haha! Some of my me-made jeans do that, too, I think it’s caused by imperfect grain alignment. Usually one leg is worse than the other, probably because my fabric wasn’t folded perfectly so the top layer was on-grain but the lower layer was off. Not sure what the excuse is in storebought jeans, though sometimes they do it on purpose to save fabric…
Honey, I think you’re crazy 🙂 I would not undertake the experiment. But then, I don’t think the ripples make the jeans “real”. And I think no ripples looks better.
I’m with you, K-Line. I think the jeans without the ripples look better, BUT, Tanitisis, you are ultimately the one who is wearing the jeans, so they have to appeal to you. I’d definitely do lots of swatches though, or you’ll have some unhappy results, which ultimately may end up being a lot of work for little to no reward. Again though, that’s for you to decide, and they’ll be fabulous whatever you end up doing, I’m sure. 🙂
Hehe. I’m actually glad to see so many votes in favour of “no ripples.” Yeah, swatching would be necessary. And you may be right, a lot of work for not much reward. And yet, and yet…
absolutely not…. good fit trumps ripples!
Wow so helpful that’s is the exact reason why I have never made jeans. I have often looked at the ripple and wondered. So don’t think your slow on the uptake I would not have worked this out on my own. Good luck I am keen to see how you go if you decided to take it to that level. Your jeans look fabulous anyway 🙂
“Is the ripple worth it?”
No, not for me. YMMV, and isn’t that the whole reason we sew? For individual preference?
I’m a bit pedantic when it comes to jeans so I am team ripple! I say have swatch test like a boss and have a go. How awesome would it be if you could have all the little effects of fancy pants (see that lame pun there?!) jeans but with the perfect fit of me made! In saying that- I would not forgoe fit for ripple but I would be keen to have a bash at this simply to see if it can be done at home. Good luck!
I’m on team ripple too, if for nothing else than the fact that it’ll be a fantastic experiment to witness, go team ripple!
I’m team ripple too. That’s one of the (many) things putting me off sewing my own jeans.
I wouldn’t forgo fit for ripple though. Good luck. I’m sure you’ll work it out and generously share your knowledge with us!
I confess that I’m team ripple too. I intentionally have no prewash my denim to get that effect. I use cotton thread (not polyester thread) and it works well too. I’m usually happy with my humble ripples (we call them “puckering effect”) that I get after several washes. So I’d recommend raw fabrics and cotton threads for your purpose. Good luck with your experiment!
HAHA, Team Ripple! I should’ve put up a poll, in hindsight. Love it. 🙂
i’m with you, favoring the ripple! however i think sizing issues and blue dye all over my hands would turn me off. but i haven’t attempted jeans yet myself. i’m curious to see your results if you experiment with it though!
I’m not convinced that the ripple is a result of post-topstitching shrinkage. But I agree that the ripple is what leads to the uneven wear, which eventually becomes visible.
I seem to recall getting similar wear patterns on ordinary, non-topstitched seams. I recently bought a new pair of jeans and I can feel the ripple on the seam-allowance side of the outseam, which is not topstitched. (The jeans are too new to show the wear.) The raw edges are serged together.
I wonder if the serging or topstitching process is actually stretching out the raw edge while the jeans are being sewn, thus causing that edge to ripple against the slightly shorter fabric of the jeans leg.
I was wondering that, too – as I’ve seen a similar ripple effect as a result of higher top thread tension …maybe another one to test out?
OK, so my thoughts—yes, the ripple absolutely occurs on non-topstitched seams, see the first photo up above, which is from the non-topstitched outseam.
As to the thread tension, in my experience you have to turn the tension way up just to get topstitching thread to work properly. This might be a bit of a factor, though. I was just noticing ripple along the topstitched seams in one of my husband’s shirts—which I made out of an old flannel bedsheet so I’m pretty sure post-stitching shrinkage was not the culprit. Hmm.
Perhaps when there’s ripple on a plain seam, it’s because the raw edge has stretched and is now a little longer. If the tension draws the seam up a bit, this could increase the ripple.
When there’s a ripple on a topstitched seam (i.e. mock flat fell), there could still be a bit of raw edge stretch. There could also be a shift of grainlines of the outside of the garment versus the seam allowance, as the presser foot drags the top layer and the feed dogs scoot the bottom layer.
(I think I’ve seen this when I’ve done regular top- or edgestitching. The top layer sometimes “grows” a little, and the presser foot drags it out of square in relation to the bottom layer. This is on light fabric, not denim. Too many variables at this point.)
Test by doing a mock flat fell with a walking foot to eliminate the drag?
LMAO at 2barbara’s first comment. She took the words right out of my mouth. Growing up, denim anything was for the barn, so no one really cared how they looked – they just lasted foreverandeverandever, which was good. Not being much of a denim wearer, I don’t understand the hype about forking out $10000’s for “worn” new jeans, and I’ll always try to do better than factory-made look-alikes. I know you said it’s all in your head… the experiment *would* be interesting… but seriously, girl, give your head a shake and be arrogantly smug about your custom-fit-better-than-yours-do jeans! 😉
could you sew the ripple seam on unwashed and otherwise uncut fabric? Then wash it, get the shrink and the ripple and then cut and sew around it? A bit of insanity, construction order-wise, but maybe less fitting trouble.
Hmm, that kind of makes my head hurt.
Not saying it wouldn’t work, but makes my head hurt. 🙂
Ooooh! Sewing experiements! 🙂 I don’t know the answer, but I’ll be watching closely… I have noticed that some of my linen flat fell seams get the ripple. Linen is one of those fabrics that even when pre-washed repeatedly can still shrink up over time, so I think you’re on to something about the cause of the ripple. Neat!
exactly! but also – the thread is shrinking at a faster pace than the fabric. if you want to test the theory, do this: take a really rippled seam section and press it as flat as you can. it will still be rippled somewhat. now with your seam-ripper, cut through the top-stitching every few stitches (front and back) and press again. see the difference.
when you pre-wash, you’re eliminated the chance of your fabric shrinking badly. you’re also probably using a better quality thread with less shrinkage. now i’m just curious: do you press the jeans that you make each time they’re washed?
Isn’t the point of polyester thread that it won’t shrink? Hmm. I can’t use cotton, though, it breaks too easily.
For what it is worth, I recently acquired a pair of St. John jeans in a thrift/consignment store that retail for $300 or so. (The zipper is to die for.) They have NO ripples at all. They are a cotton/lycra mix, but care instructions say to DRY CLEAN only! I think that is so they will never ripple. Now I am afraid to wash them. On another note, the original owner of these babies never had them properly hemmed; fortunately the fold line didn’t show when I hemmed them. Paying $300 for a pair of jeans and not hemming them seems very weird, but then we all sew…
Ooo, what a find. I’ve never paid $300 for jeans, but I have paid upwards of $100 as a matter of course—some have the ripple, and some don’t. Seems to depend on the finish (the non-ripple ones I’m looking at right now are a dark-wash and also don’t have a double-topstitched inseam…)
I wish I could buy thrift store jeans, but they’ve usually been worn by someone shorter in the leg than I, so either they’ve been hemmed or the back of the hem has been worn all to hell. Once in a while I find a good one, but it’s not usually worth the trouble.
Egads! I think yours have a nice bit of ripple to them, I certainly wouldn’t fret over it but to each their own.
You know, I think the little ripple shows up more in the photos than it does in real life… blasted flash. 😉
Oh, wow, the things I’ve never thought about! (Never having made jeans for myself).
Well, I think it will be too difficult to achieve this ripple by not prewashing the fabric. As you can see in your pictures, the denim is of a different quality in the storebought jeans, and every type of denim you buy will behave differently after sewing and washing (AFTERwards), not to think of how to calculate all the different areas. You’d have loads of trial runs and maybe not a jeans to wear for it 🙂
Can’t you just sew something into the seam, some sort of cord which shrinks and pulls at the fabric? No idea what and how, but this just popped into my head. Probably just as silly an idea 😉
(Not to say that I find your thoughts silly, I would prefer the ripple look with my jeans, but there we are steering into that whole homesewn discussion again 😉
You may be right about it being more trouble than it’s worth. And yet, and yet… 😉
Why would you be the one sandpapering? Isn’t that what children are for?
haha, this made me laugh!
LMAO.
Good idea. Hehehehehe.
I think the twist thing might be a problem too; I’ve done partially-shrinking denim before, like, only one wash, then sewed up jeans and had them look great only to twist horribly after successive washes. Ugh. I’m not really pro- or anti-ripple, but I’m vehemently anti-twist!
Ok, so confession time—I really never pre-wash my denim more than once. I have had twisties show up erratically, usually much worse in one leg than the other. Which makes me think it has more to do with imprecision in my cutting (especially with being sloppy about folding my fabric perfectly on-grain), rather than an inherent property of the denim.
And yeah, twist is WAY worse than non-ripple.
Not a fan of the ripple, but if you’re really trying to emulate a lot of RTW features… it occurs to me that maybe you could buy jeans a size or two up (or maybe men’s jeans, if you prefer/abhor a specific cut) and then alter them to fit you?
Oh, dear. Alter. That word makes me shudder… 😉
A confession here: I rarely pre-wash my fabric. Only if there’s a specific reason to do so really. When I took pattern making classes, that was what my teacher recommended.
I’m not a huge jeans-wearer but I’ve made several pairs over the past years none the less. And all of them, with a bit of wear, are showing the ‘ripple’ you mentioned. I should add that I didn’t really the pattern to accomodate for shrinkage. Of course, cotton fabrics, especially twills, can always shrink. However, the modern ones are nowhere near as bad as those from all those years ago. Width-wise shrinking is normally limited to restoring the fabric to its size prior to wear and as for length… well I like to hem my trousers a bit long anyway, so loosing up to 1 cm can go unnoticed.
That’s interesting to hear. I totally get skipping the pre-wash, although I had always been told that denim was one you HAVE to pre-wash. Stretch denim does seem to have more issues with growing than shrinking, though, so maybe it would not be such a big deal. Hmm. Thanks for your perspective. And yeah, I’m all about the extra-long hemming. Which can be its own problem, of course…
I used to work for Wrangler, in the advertising department. (I proofread a lot of sales literature.) We used a proprietary weave for our denim, a twill that would not twist. Most denim twills will twist, as part of the nature of “twill” — the twist/bias slant is woven in, and to be expected, and many manufacturers either ignore it or waste lots of fabric by cutting to avoid it. Commercially manufactured jeans are usually sewn on special industrial sewing machines that can fold and sew a true flat-felled seam IN ONE PASS!!!!!! Part of the reason rtw jeans seams ripple is due to these exactly-matched stitches on both edges of the seam. Twinned stitches tend to pull the fabric at the same interval, in the case of uneven stitch tension and/or shrinkage. That accounts for the “railroad” effect of the flat-felled seams. A fair amount of force is exerted by machine operators as they wrestle jeans through their sewing machines, which might also account for some of the rippling: even non-twist twill will stretch on the bias, especially if a well-muscled forearm is pulling it taut, in front and in back of the feed dogs. Of course, all of this could be b.s.: remember that I got it from sales literature.
LinB, I was hoping you would chime in with your Wrangler experience! That’s interesting what you say about the exactly-matched stitches, maybe that is part of it. I usually do taut-sewing as well, but probably not as taut as a real industrial sewist would, if only because most of the denim I can get my hands on is pretty wimpy.
Thanks for the food for thought! 🙂
After reading your post, I checked out my favorite pair of jeans (all of mine are RTW, as I haven’t gotten up the courage to sew a pair yet). They’re really high-quality dark jeans from Banana Republic, and there’s no ripple. That’s right. No ripple on the side seams, the in seam, or even the hem! Also, the side seams are not flat-felled. The in-seam is just sewn regularly and finished with a serger. The outside seam is also sewn regularly, pressed open, and each seam allowance is finished with a serger. When I bought them (three years ago!), that clean, dark, ripple-free thing was the reason. I thought they looked like better quality than jeans with ripples.
I don’t think the ripple gives jeans legitimacy. In fact, I think that not having it brings your handmade jeans up a level in terms of quality and versatility (I could wear my nicer jeans to work as well!). I also think the only people who notice these things are other sewists, so I wouldn’t worry about it. You’re making a higher-quality garment that, honestly, looks nicer than any RTW pair you could buy (even my BR jeans don’t fit me as well as your handmade jeans fit you).
You know, the ripple thing didn’t bug me as much when my jeans were new (and all dark-washy)… but now that they’re getting to the broken-in stage, it’s bugging me more. /sigh. I know, it’s all in my head. And as I said in another comment, some of my more-expensive jeans don’t have much ripple either—usually those that started out as dark-wash. Thanks for the food for thought! 🙂
It’ll be an interesting experiment to see! I agree, must be something to do with the bias in the angled seam and shrinkage…
I’m also on the side of proper jeans needing a flat fell ripple on the in seam, otherwise they’re just denim trousers in my mind! (Which can be nice, I have some. But they’re not jeans!)
I’ve just read a post on The Perfect Nose about changing up men jeans to make your own… I think this is a genius idea that might help you/me! And possibly could be a mini-cheat, because the ripple is there as the in-seams are already sewn! Maybe then can just mess around with the crotch rise and the side seams, which are regular seams anyway? It could be the way forward… 🙂
http://theperfectnose.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/jeans_fck_yea/
I will check out that post, although I must admit the idea kind of horrifies me (I don’t alter or refashion much for a reason 😉 ). Most men’s jeans aren’t stretch denim, though I suppose some are, and I’m not sure what I’d do about the contour waistband…
I’ve never noticed the ripple! What you said makes perfect sense, and I’m afraid I’ve made too much of a habit of prewashing my fabric to ever break it. I could live with the ripple or without the ripple, but red jeans? These totally need to happen because they would be glorious!
Yes, red jeans are a necessity. They must happen.
Hum, I see what you mean and greatly enjoyed your post about legitimacy! It’s a difficult one because it’s so hard to get jeans that fit, that considering enlarging a pattern – and making it not fitting anymore – makes me faint 😀
Well, I don’t know if this is relevant at all, but my Mum talks about ‘shrink to fit’ jeans that she used to buy in the 70s in the UK…. You put them on and then got into the bath, so that they would shrink to your exact figure….
Sounds fun, right?! : )
Levi made a shrink-to-fit jean in the USA in the 70s, too. Wrangler couldn’t compete: our denim didn’t shrink that much, lol.
I have been thinking about your ripple issues (read as: I have been making some non-jean pants with top stitching) and I *might* have a way to fake it without having to worry about what sort of weirdness post-construction washing will cause. In my pants I did a mock flat felled seam with two rows of topstitching on the outside. I used the serger to finish the seam on the inside, and I used a walking foot on my sewing machine for the topstitching. I was trying to keep the fabric taut as I passed it under the needle, but since I have been moving a lot of my sewing stuff around, there isn’t a lot of space on my sewing table right now, and I had a bit of problem keeping the fabric tension consistent. I noticed that after I was done the finished seam had a little bit of the ripple you are talking about. So, I was thinking, if you really want the ripple look, perhaps you could fake it with a mock flat felled seam, and a walking foot, and then as you pass the fabric under the needle alternate stretching and relaxing the fabric? I don’t know if it will be as pronounced as in the RTW but it might be a way to fake the look without having to risk odd shrinkage and wasting your time sewing something that might end up not wearable. Of course, on the other hand, I have a some sewing books that say to ALWAYS pre-wash denim fabric (because of shrinkage) and some sewing books that say to NEVER pre-wash denim because it is easier to work with when it is stiff. So, ummm, yeah. Conflicting advice, even from the experts. So, I guess I will be interested to see what you decide to do, either way.
Also, red jeans would be fabulous!
Ok, amazing timing – I’m thinking about trying to sew another pair of jeans and the ripple effect was bugging me, too, so I googled ‘how to make rippled seams on jeans’ and your post was #1 in the search.
I knew they were caused by shrinkage and was wondering if I could do test swatches, too. In my past jeans-making experiences I sewed with stretch denim with 1 or 2% spandex and both times they stretched out too much. If like other people said, denim shrinks most lengthwise, maybe when I adjust the pattern I can just make it longer but keep the width the same to account for future stretching out with the spandex?
I don’t know about others but I’m pro-ripple. Without the ripple (among other details) they’re just trousers, not real jeans. 😉
Yeah, I HATE it when stretch denim fits at first and then stretches out too much. I usually hold off on putting the studs in on my jeans until I’ve worn them for a day or two to see if I need to take in the outseam for excessive stretching—it’s so variable among stretch denims (and not directly related to % lycra, either :P) that I think every different fabric will take a bit of tweaking. Good luck! Go Team Ripple! 😉
I HATE the ripple. I hate any kind of fading on my jeans, to the point that when my jeans start to fade more than a shade and you start to see things like the ripple, I stop wearing them. I always thought the ripple was caused by poor workmanship and every time I see it I think, ”I can do better.”
We produced a lot of jeans and found out ripple after wash.Please anyone can help how to avoid the ripple? And what is the caused.