Making progress on the jeans

WELL....I would be lying if I said that these jeans were easy sailing. The pattern isn't difficult, it is just the heavy material and thick thread that probably have posed the most problems. I have ripped out so much thread because of tension problems and getting "gobbly guck" on the underside during topstitching. I have tried using the coverstitch and have had problems with the thickness of some areas....so I ended up using a combination of some topstitching on the coverstitch and some on the sewing machine. It looks as good as any rtw topstitching, not perfect though in my mind....some times I get stuck on the perfect look of the stitches, which are never noticed later anyhow! I haven't got the camera out to get photos, but soon!! I also have to photo my dd's nighties (which they love, thankfully!) I ended up reducing the width at the knee and down on the legs by about 2" on each seam, so that is quite substantial....I like the look better. I put the pants on without the waistband and determined pocket position, put the pockets on... then attached the waistband and no longer liked where they were. I had to rip them off and raise them up about 2". After I got them on and checked them again, I wish I had raised them even more, but I was done messing with the pockets. I wanted the pockets to sit a little lower on the butt like a lot of the rtw ones do. They sort of look right....with a shirt they will look right for sure. I don't think I will make this pattern again for jeans. I must get the new jalie jeans pattern. I just wasn't sure about using it for non-stretch denim. I could just go up a size for the non-stretch. The pockets on these jeans are not long enough for my liking. I like to be able to stick my hands all the way in. These don't allow that. I am debating fixing that still. I didn't really follow bwof directions for the zipper, I just put it in. It was long, so I have to remove some of the teeth with some needlenose pliers, then cut off the rest. It looks good installed. I had a b**ch of a time with the button holes, which I normally don't have any problems with. I think it was just the thickness and heaviness of the material and the thread and it wasn't feeding properly on the feed dogs. I should have increased the presser foot pressure. Hind sight.....it was 11pm last night when I was working on it and I just wanted to finish! Which, I finally did. SO, I have to hem the pants, install the two tack buttons, and install six rivets (which I haven't tried using yet...). Give me the strength to finish these!!!! Pictures coming, I promise!