February 26, 2015

Tiny Stitches

Repairing these jeans of mine has become both a labor of love and challenging experimentation. The love isn't so much for the jeans themselves, but rather the process of saving them from the scrap heap. Keeping them wearable is the challenging part, too, as these jeans are at the point where almost the entirety of the front panels needs to be reinforced. Starting with a single leg, I pinned in place a "patch" to the interior side of the jeans that covers the front of the leg from side seam to side seam and extends from the fly down to mid-shin.
Around the mid-thigh, the weave of the denim has started to fray. I originally planned to try darning the fabric, but instead settled for a darning/stitching hybrid of sorts.
The long blue stitches follow the direction of the warp threads and are sewn through the jeans and the denim patch that's attached to the inside of the leg. The minuscule-cross-your-eyes-trying-to-see-'em teensy tiny white stitches run perpendicular to the blue stitches, covering them. These too are sewn through both layers of denim.
Not a bad way to while away an afternoon, in my mind, stitching and listening to NPR.
Eventually, I'll stitch the entire leg Sashiko style to anchor and reinforce the patch job, just like on the seat of the jeans. Until then, I decided to break up the monotony a bit and add exterior patches, too. I unearthed some of my thinner upholstery fabric scraps scored at The Scrap Exchange back when we lived in North Carolina.
This patch on the outside of the jeans extends from mid-shin to knee and overlaps by about an inch the denim patch pinned to the inside of the jeans. This section will get the same Sashiko style stitching as the rest of the leg. 

2 comments:

  1. I have such admiration for your commitment to these jeans Laurie and I absolutely love that upholstery fabric you've chosen for the exterior patch. It looks great against the denim. I'm looking forward to seeing it all stitched up with the Sashiko style.

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    Replies
    1. I hope you don't mind a looooooong wait, Xan! This is slow stitching to be sure. Thanks for the encouragement.

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