A funny thing happened a couple years ago. We were at a football game and one of the kids in Ethan's youth group (Ethan is a youth director) asked him where he got his jeans. She thought they were pretty cool. Later that week, another kid asked the same question during youth group about the same pair of jeans. What was so cool about them? They had been patched from the inside - the new style that came with a nice price tag.There was something about these jeans, however, that the students didn't know about. These jeans were probably at least 3 years old at the time, and when they were purchased - there were no patches. Yes, these jeans actually earned their patches, and I put them on. On the inside. Before I knew it was cool.
Today I spent the better part of my afternoon patching up the pile of jeans in the picture. The pile has accumulated since spring, and I figured that they better get fixed up since the fall weather is coming. Unfortunately for my husband, jeans with patches are not what is cool anymore. Now it is jeans with holes all over - unpatched. If only I would have let them be. But some of the holes were getting a bit, well . . . indecent.
We aren't really that concerned with the changing tides of coolness anyway. We're just trying to go another year without having to buy more jeans. So I'm just going to keep patching away. And when you think about it, fashions cycle - so jeans with patches will eventually be cool again. And I bet these jeans will be there to see it!
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2 comments:
I'd love to see a tutorial on how to patch jeans. I don't know why that skill confounds me!
I did a few trial and error patch jobs before I finally found what worked for me. The first few patches just ripped out right away. I don't know if my camera is good enough to get close ups of the stitches, but I will try and describe what I do.
1. Cut a piece of fabric to cover at least 1/2 inch past the hole. I use pieces of old jeans that I just couldn't fix any more, but any sturdy fabric will work.
2. Place the patch over the hole on the inside of the jeans and pin into place. This can be the tricky part! A lot of times I will cut my patch quite a bit bigger than needed to help with this step.
3. With jeans right side out, stitch on the patch. (Slipping the leg on the free arm if needed) I use what is called a three step zig-zag setting. It's like the zig-zag but has 3 stitches instead of 1 to make up each line. (I found the plain zig-zag stitch will sometimes cause the patch to rip out or will even make holes in the fabric) I go over and over across the hole in all directions and then past the hole at least 1/2 inch. Backstitching a lot and hand guiding forward in different directions works best for me.
4. Turn jeans to the inside to clip threads and trim off the extra patch fabric.
I don't know if that helps a lot. If you click on the picture I took it should zoom it in a little. I do best when I can follow a video or something. Maybe there is a tutorial on the internet somewhere too.
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