Selecting jeans on upcoming show

link Sheryl Borden

Creative Living

Information on selecting jeans and sustainable living will be the featured topics on “Creative Living” on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. and on Thursday at noon.

For many women the selection of a pair of jeans is difficult. Wardrobe consultant and author, Nancy Nix-Rice will share some concepts that can guide each woman to her ideal choice. She will discuss color, fabric, leg cut and style details as well as fit. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Louix Dor Dempriey is a spiritual master, and he’s going to talk about sustainable living and why eco- or sustainable living is important. He believes we should leave every place more beautiful than we found it. He is the president/CEO of Louix Dor Dempriey Foundation in Laguna Hills, California.

Information on decorative stitching on quilts, lottery and sweepstakes scams, and scrapbooking will be the featured topics on “Creative Living” on Tuesday at noon and on Saturday at 2 p.m.

June Mellinger, Director of Education with Brother International, will show how to jazz up an Amish quilt with decorative stitches and how to make other quilts look as though they were quilted by hand. She’s from Bridgewater, New Jersey.

Linda Davis, vice-president of operations at J. P. Stone Community Bank, will explain what happens if you purchase a foreign lottery ticket, or if you answer sweepstakes mail invitations, or receive an “official” notification of winnings. She’ll also tell how to protect yourself through knowledge.

New Mexico Cooperative Extension Home Economist Connie Moyers will show how to make scrapbooks out of paper bags, envelopes and even clipboards. She also has some ideas for stretching your scrapbooking dollars. Moyers is from Clovis.

Sheer Jean-eous

For many women the search for that perfect pair of jeans is the Holy Grail of fashion. Factors to consider include:

Color — or “wash” as it’s called when you’re talking about jeans — influences how casual or dressy a pair is, and also how slimming. The most relaxed look is a slightly faded out and purposely distressed color. The sit-down lines — called ‘whiskering’ — and the look of wear on the thigh are created by hand-sanding the finished jeans to make them look well-loved.

Jeans in colors other than navy are also popular right now. If you decide to jump on that trend, choose carefully. Look for slightly muted colors rather than extremely bright ones. And balance that attention-grabbing bottom color with a riveting accessory high on your body — a great scarf or necklace, for instance.

Fabric makes a big difference in jeans too. Look for a mix of cotton with about 5% Spandex. That gives the fabric a bit of stretch, so you can wear a youthful, body-skimming fit without feeling un-comfortably squeezed into the pants. But don’t imagine that if a little Spandex is good, a lot must be even better. Too much stretch fiber can leave you with pants that grow as you wear them and end up looking baggy.

The shape of the leg is also important to jean flattery. Unlike dressier pants that are designed to skim over the body, jeans are designed to fit snug through the thighs and actually hug the back of the leg below the fanny.

From the knee down, jeans can either get narrower or wider. Skinny jeans can be surprisingly flattering.

Boot-cut jeans — with a flare at the bottom — are widely touted as being the most flattering, supposedly because they balance out hip fullness. Look for jeans with just the slightest bit of flare so you get the balance without the shortening effect.

One little-discussed but critical design detail can really ramp up the flattery of jeans — the waist cut.

The savviest designer jeans are cut higher in the back and lower in the front. A waistband that hits low in back instantly makes hips look broad. So look for a high cut in back, but a lower cut in front so your torso looks longer. The easiest place for a woman to look taller and trimmer is the space between the bottom of her bra and the top of her waistband.

So decide which color, fabric, leg shape and waistline suit your figure, add a belt with a fun, focal-point buckle to visually whittle your waist ... and wear your jeans with style, regardless of your age or pant size.

“Creative Living" is produced and hosted by Sheryl Borden. The show is carried by more than 118 PBS stations in the U.S., Canada, Guam and Puerto Rico and is distributed by Westlink, Albuquerque.