New, Old Jeans

Do you own a favorite pair of jeans? You know the kind, super soft from being washed over and over.  Your go to pair that even if a hole has developed in an undesirable location.  Or maybe your child has a pair that needs a repair to make them modest enough for school or church?

 My youngest daughter was recently given a pair of super cute and just-like-new jeans from her bff.  Sorry, but I just had to use their slang :)   Her bff is not that much taller but has longer legs than my daughter so a hole that was perfectly modest on her just wasn't going to work on my girl.  She loved the jeans so I suggested a patch.  Being the kind of gal who feels like she was born in the wrong fashion era, she would prefer to have been born in the 60's/70's, she was all over the patch idea.  Until we found ugly patches, boring patches, and the iron in patches.   Thankfully, my super smart friend...the one who likes to sew....thought I should clarify that since I have more than one super smart friend, told me about a pair of Eddie Bauer jeans that she had recently found in a catalog.

photo from www.eddiebauer.com

My girl decided she loved the look and wanted me to sew it, RIGHT AWAY!  Thankfully, we were in OK at the time which gave me an excuse to put it off until we were able to return to our beach home.  For the record, I don't sew.  I don't sew as in I have only sewn the bedding and accessories for my daughters' nursery with a great deal of assistance from a friend who does sew. At least that is how I like to remember that experience.  In all reality, she sewed and I assisted.   That was a long, long time ago.  The only other sewing experience I have is sewing Superman's patches on to his fire/ems shirts.  I had so much difficulty with those, I eventually turned that job over to our local dry cleaners.  You can see the difficulty I was facing of taking her new favorite jeans and making them look anything like the $99.00

One afternoon I had finally talked myself into tackling that pair of jeans.  I reasoned with myself that if I had successfully home educated one daughter through high school graduation and the other was almost finished, surely I could sew one patch to the inside of a pair of denims. I also try to instill in my girls the "I can do it" attitude so I decided to lead by example.  My other source of encouragement was my Grams.  She had sewn many, many articles of clothing for me from the time I was a little girl as well as many quilts and other items.  Since I had just brought her sewing machine home with me I decided now was the time!  I was going to learn how to use her machine and sew! 

Meet my Grams.  Isn't she just gorgeous?!  This picture was taken on her last trip to the mountains of Colorado.  That's Superman driving, he tends to be camera shy. 

Grams and my Sunshine Gal, I call her that since she was born on the first day of summer, drinking their hot cocoa out of straws.  My Grams loved to shop!  Even in her late 80's she wanted me to take her at least once a week out to shop and for dinner.  She was full of life and adored her great granddaughters, as you can tell from this photo.

I got the machine out and promised my daughter to try my hardest to make her jeans look as cute as the ones that are sold by Eddie Bauer.  Just an hour later they were finished and she was THRILLED with the results.  I know, you must be thinking, where are the pics of the jeans?   That sewing experience took place before my blogging days and I didn't take the step by step photos.   When my older girl, (the one who is the talented photographer...Oh I promised not to brag too much), brought me her jeans that had gotten a little too holy, no pun intended, for church I remembered to take the step by step photos. 



Her favorite pair.  I am sure you might be thinking, those don't look too holy for church.  Superman and I had a difficult time when the holy/ripped/distressed jeans became popular allowing the girls to wear them.  After much negotiation from Sunshine gal, it was decided as long as the rips were below the knee and we didn't have to pay for them then they would be allowed to wear them.  While the first rule of above the knee has never changed, we have actually purchased a few pair of ripped jeans. 

Using a worn completely out skinny legged jeans (the hole is not visible in this photo) I just cut some of the leg off.  It was painless to the jeans but not so much for the daughter who tends to become very attached to her clothes.  She found comfort in knowing her old favorite jeans would now be part of her new favorite jeans. 

Sewing on my Grams' machine brought me great joy.  She joined Jesus in July so my emotions are still fresh but I just felt her presence while using her machine.  She had so many bobbins already threaded I didn't have to thread my own bobbin which I am sure was part of the reason my sewing experience was a success. 

Ready to start stitching!  I simply sewed a straight line four different times and it made a box around the hole. 

 Thought I added the same picture twice, didn't you?!  I did, just in case you needed to see this step twice. 

The jeans are finished!   My daughter is no longer too holy for church. 

The box isn't perfect but it is what was intended, make the jeans look like they are distressed.  This small hole was actually below the knee but she asked that I patch all of the holes.  She wanted them to look as much like the Eddie Bauer's as possible. 

She put them on right away, thanked me, and rushed out the door to praise band practice.  Both girls wanted the stitching to be less visible than the pair on the website so I chose a light denim thread.  You could use a colored thread or a dark denim thread for contrast.  I would choose a thick thread for this project for durability. 

What have you been making?  Do you have a tip on how to take something old and make it new again?

I read each and every comment so please leave me one to read!