Thanks ladies. I have solved my dilemma. I've decided that jeans don't work at the moment. The best ones I found were the Levis demi something range but I'm going to leave them until I've lost the 3kg I seem to have put on recently.

So, what I was really after was a 'capsule' wardrobe - things that I could mix and match and put on in a hurry. I have LOADS of clothes in my wardrobe but I don't want to be standing there choosing a dress, then a cardigan, then shoes each morning. I want it to be more of a non-brainer. So this is what I've bought:

about five merino long sleeve tops on sale from Witchery ($30 each instead of $90 each) in different colours. I can layer these over a tank or wear on their own.
two waterfally type cardigans that I can layer over the merino tops (one for $60 at Witchery, reduced from $170 and another for about $120 from Country Road). These are also good over the jeans I do have to hide a muffin
one cream linen skirt from Emerson ($30) that I can wear in summer or winter with leggings and boots
a few peasant type shirts from Target and Country Road
two tunics from Vigorella that I can wear over leggings (they're a bit like Metalicus) and again can layer with merino tops in winter

So that's me sorted. Was kind of easy when I decided to stop stressing about trying to make jeans work and went for leggings/tunics as a base instead.