BCAE Jean Genie Class Part 2

I'm so excited that I can finally tell you all about the Jean Genie class i took at the Boston Center for Adult Education last weekend! If you've never taken a class at the BCAE, I have to say that you're missing out. They have such a wide variety of classes that you're almost guaranteed to find a class on any subject that you're looking to gain a little extra knowledge in. I took the "Digital Photography: The Next Step" class there in April and have to give a lot of credit to BCAE for my improved photography skills. 

As someone who is already pretty familiar with a sewing machine, but not so much with sewing jeans, I wondered what knowledge this Jean Genie class would bring me. I think the words "ohhh, I didn't know you could do that!" came out of my mouth way more than I would have expected during the 3 hour class. 

One of the first things we learned in the class was how to take in the waistband of your jeans in a way that's totally unnoticeable! As it turns out, this technique is not only great when you've lost weight and don't want to lose your favorite jeans, but it also works for those jeans that fit amazingly in the morning but then you find yourself having to hike them up for the rest of the day. Below, our fabulous instructor Julia Yampolsky taught us the technique using scrap fabric.

I think that one of the most surprising things that I learned in this class was that patching a pair of jeans does not mean that you have to end up looking like a scarecrow with obvious patches that are 10 shades darker than your jeans. I found out that the secret to making your patches almost invisible is actually in the thread color choice! Imagine that?! And even more surprising was to find out that the thread you most likely want to choose will be grey, not blue. Fascinating!

While it's fairly common to require a patch at the knee, the jeans I brought with me to the class actually needed a patch at the hem. This giant tear is the result of wearing jeans that are far too long, so they dragged on the ground when I wore them with sneakers. Julia helped me to create a patch by cutting the bottom part off another pair of jeans and fitting it to the hole in mine. Then, using the patching technique, I was able to make my jeans whole again! I can't wait to patch up another pair of my jeans which have suffered the same fate.

Since we had a little extra time at the end of our class, Julia taught us how to hem a pair of jeans. The same technique can be applied to various types of pants, and oh my goodness it's so easy to do! While this lesson isn't usually taught in her Jean Genie class, you might consider taking Julia's Easy Alterations to Save you Money class if that's something you want to learn how to do.

Obviously I couldn't give away all of Julia's secrets, so if you want to learn exactly how to magically repair all of your jeans, sign up for the Jean Genie class which is being offered again in December! And  if you're interested in leaning basic to advanced sewing skills with other materials, BCAE offers so many other sewing classes too!

Tweet