Thanks for the welcomes 

This is a lovely place. I'm American, from upstate New York originally, but I've been living in Scotland for the last 10 years. I like sewing all sorts of things, and I've made a diary where I'm trying to post pictures. Mostly I want to sew useful things for the house, clothes costumes and toys for the kids, and clothes for me.

Oh I'm definitely going to try it, I have all the fabric, lining, interlining, pattern chosen... I just keep sewing other things first because I'm a bit of a chicken 

Sounds frustrating! I hope it all works out in the end. I'm trying to muster up the nerve to start a coat project but it all feels too intimidating. And I wouldn't know what to do if I ended up with half the issues you're having  Good luck!

I'm late to the conversation, but Named clothing have a pattern for jeans with a knee seam, Palo jeans from their Breaking the Pattern book. So a knee seam might look very trendy.