Wowee zowee, I discovered the motherlode of stretch denim, and boy is it going to come in handy now that I’ve fallen hard for the Jalie 2908 jeans pattern, a.k.a. the Holy Fecking Shet Jeans. A lot of folks have asked where I got my stretch denim for them, and it was just a lucky buy at Fabric.com. After I finished them, I immediately went back to Fabric.com and was disappointed to find only one stretch denim remaining in a decidedly “mom jeans” shade of medium blue. Denver Fabrics had no stretch denim at all in their inventory, and the higher end places don’t tend to stock it regularly as far as I can tell. After a little more digging, I hit upon Lura’s Fabric Shop, which seems to be a small family run business with an amazing selection of denim.

I promptly sent away for a bunch of swatches of dark wash stretch denim, received a friendly email within 24 hours, and an envelope full of drool-worthy denim swatches within a couple of days. Check these out:

From the upper left going clockwise, these are article numbers LDEN095, LDEN096, LDEN13, LDEN09R and LDEN12 respectively, representing a range of weights and washes, but all dark, modern, great quality, moderately stretchy and perfect for more pairs of Holy Fecking Shet jeans. The photos on Lura’s website are a little different and make the denim look lighter than it is, probably to show detail. I think my photo is represents the color more accurately, but order your own and see for yourselves. Unlike a lot of the other online fabric shops, it looks like denim and stretch denim are part of Lura’s bread and butter, so there’s no crossing your fingers and hoping that they’ll get some in. Plus how nice is it to get a handwritten note from the owner with your samples? Talk about service. Love it!  

They have lighter washes too, but my preference for handmade jeans is to go dark because I think the lighter blues bear a bit of the “homemade” stamp unless you can get the ripply fading and wear effects at the seams and hems that RTW jeans get through various treatments. (I tried sandpaper and it just made the denim fuzzy.) But if you like your medium and light blue denims, Lurah’s has that too.

Anyway, I wanted to share that in case any of you have been trolling the fabric sites in hopes of a decent denim popping up, and in case any of you have been hesitating on making up your Jalie 2908s. What are you waiting for?  I’m putting it on a platter and serving it up to you!