Artistic Jeans

 Hello Readers. Do you like distressed denim? I love almost anything of  denim and jeans are my everyday uniform. But these are a little too distressed for me. Especially in winter. My legs would freeze in these. They were only 25 cents at one of my favorite thrift store! I brought them home and decided to patch all these holes.

 

Before and after.

 

 

The holes in these jeans were not going to work in the winter where I live. It is freezing outside. I would turn into an ice cube. 

I need some patches. I decided to use this fabric I had on hand. This fabric is cotton and has a nice weight to it, it's pretty thick. It is for home interior decorating projects. It will be a good match for the thicknes for these jeans. I could cut out some of the pictures and use them as patches.

I cut out the pictures with my rotary cutter. I cut the pictures out based on the size of the picture and the size of the holes in my jeans. I wanted the patches to be a bit larger than the holes.

I arranged the patches on top of the jeans to make sure the holes were fully covered. I arranged them carefully to make sure my plan would work.

 

I used this iron-on hem tape to hold the patches in place. Pins would also work but they always seem to shift around and stab me when I am sewing so this tape will be safer for me. 

I placed the tape under the patches. I put it around the edges and ironed the patches to the jeans following the directions on the package. 

I unbuttoned the jeans. This allowed me to get the jeans into position on the sewing machine. I used a zigzag stitch all around the patches. The stitching will hold much better than the iron-on tape alone over the long term. 

It took a while to get around all the patches and wiggle the jeans around my sewing machine but it worked out great.

My jeans were finished. The patches were all in place and all the holes were covered. My legs would be warm and covered all winter. 

I love the colorful and fun patches. This was such a fun way to "fix" the distressed spots on my jeans. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

Patching Distressed Denim

 Hello Readers. I have always liked distressed denim. It just seems relaxed and there isn't any pressure or stress about it being perfect. It's a little messy. It's casual and fun.

Before and after.

This skirt was cute but it was meant to be low in the waist. I wanted to raise the waist but that means the distressing will be up on my thigh and I wasn't comfortable with that open hole so high on my leg. I wanted to patch the hole from the inside with this fabric I had in my stash. It had little green sneakers all over it and I just thought it was cute. 

I cut off the long white threads just to get them out of the way. This will open up the hole but I am going to fill it in so it's OK.

I cut a piece of the fabric and made sure it covered the hole fully. I turned the skirt inside out to check the coverage. 

I stitched around the hole to secure the fabric to the denim. I patched the other hole the same way.

I cut off the excess fabric away from the patch. I sewed the new side seams to make the waist smaller. When the waist is smaller the skirt will sit higher on my body. 

The skirt has a higher waist and the patches are a fun addition. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- This skirt was casual and fun. I loved it but I haven't worn it again. I haven't worn the sweater either. Why?

Distressing a Denim Jacket

 Hello Readers. I got this jacket as a hand-me-down and liked the classic style. I decided to do some distressing and have some fun with it. This is an easy no-sew refashion that only requires scissors.

Before and after. 

I tried my jacket on and decided on the length I wanted. Then I started cutting the sleeves and the body of the jacket to make everything shorter. I have short arms and I wanted a cropped jacket so it all needed to be cut shorter. I then got a seam ripper to start distressing the edges. 

 

 You can use anything you want to distress your jacket. I have seen people use sand paper, cheese graters, tweezers... anything that you can pull and scratch at the loose threads will work. 

I also used scissors to make little tiny cuts along the edges so I would get more fraying when I washed and dried the jacket.

This is a look at the fraying I got after washing the jacket in my washing machine. I put it in the dryer next to get more fraying and dry the jacket. 

The washer and dryer worked really well to bring out the fraying at the edges. I like the frayed edges a lot. I usually cut the really long white threads to neaten it up a little. 

Here is a close up look at the jacket and the frayed edges.

I really liked how the jacket turned out. And the cropped length is especially great for petites too. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year End Note From Chickie- This was a fun project for me. The cheese grater was my favorite. The jacket still matches everything.

Valentine Jeans

 Hello Readers. Do you like distressed Jeans? I love them... in warm weather. In the cold weather I am having in my part of the world lately, they are not great. It is too cold for exposed knees.

 

Before and after.

It is painfully cold where I live. Like it hurts my face when I go outside. These holes would cause me to freeze to death out in the cold. What can we do to fix that?

I thought it would be fun to fill in the holes with some red heart fabric. It would be cute for Valentine's Day but it would be great all year round too.

I started by turning the jeans inside out. I cut the red pieces large enough to cover the holes and extend out beyond them. I needed the red pieces to be bigger than the holes. I will use that extra fabric around the holes to secure it all together. I used pieces of Iron-on Hem Tape to keep the red pieces in place while I was working. I ironed the red pieces to the inside of the jeans.

It looked like this from the outside. The red fabric peeks out through the holes and covers the leg. That is just what I wanted. But I also wanted to do a little more to highlight the red fabric.

I wanted to do some visible mending. I started using red thread in my sewing machine and red embroidery thread by hand. I wanted a combination of different stitches. I thought it would be more fun that way. This stitching adds some color to my jeans but it also connects the red fabric to the jeans and makes them much stronger than the iron-on hem tape could alone. 

Here is a look at the different stitching. I stopped because I used all the red embroidery thread I had on hand. When I ran out of red thread I had to stop. I love the messy free form look of the mending. The pops of bright red are so fun.

I thought the end result was a fun casual look that was great for Valentine's Day and more. I will tell you all about that sweater next time. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

*Year End Note From Chickie- These were so fun but they got too tight through the year. Ugh, middle age weight gain is real.

 

Over Distressed

Hello Readers. I had a couple pairs of jeans that were distressed at the knees. I like that look but it is cold and the jeans were not great to wear in the cold weather. I have been wanting to try some visible patching and mending and here was my chance.

I started by cutting out all those white threads. I thought they would just get in my way, 

I decided to fill in the holes with other fabric. 

For the darker pair of jeans I chose a dark thick cotton. I cut pieces that were slightly bigger than the holes and stitched around them with my sewing machine. Was it hard to sew inside a pant leg? 

Yes. Yes, it was. It was part sewing, part wrestling.

 I wanted to keep the blue colors close in tone but also make sure the patches showed. These are my new favorite jeans.

This warm cozy sweater was a wonderful find at a clothes swap. It was brand new! I liked the length and the sleeves weren't too long on my short stubby arms! It also had beautiful silver hooks instead of regular buttons and...

Judging from the tag, it came all the way from Norway. It was a size small but it was still a little big on me. It was thick and the extra size made it seem bulky. I thought if I could slim it down a little it wouldn't look so puffy. .

 Norway makes great sweaters!

I took a little off the sides and the sleeves. I used a tight zigzag stitch to keep it from fraying.  Usually I find sleeves can be tight, I always think I must have big arms but this sweater was the opposite. The sleeves were really too roomy.

I really liked how these 2 pieces turned out. The jeans kept my legs warm and the sweater didn't feel as over-sized. So then what did I do?

 

 I made my husband hold the camera down low so I looked taller in this picture. 

I decided to patch the knees on another pair of jeans. I used some scrap denim and covered the patches with visible stitches. I wasn't sure what I was doing and I didn't really have a plan. (My usual way of life!) I just got into it and thought I would figure it out as I went. (Also my usual way of life!)

The hand stitches were fun and I am not sure I am really done with these yet.

I did use my machine to attach all the patches for strength. I liked how excess sewing looked on the patches so I went a little overboard. I sewed one front pocket half closed in my excitement. Oops!

 Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

Denim Days; Much Too Distressed

Hello Readers. I was overly distressed. Well, my jeans were overly distressed. It was my own fault. I am the one who distressed them.

I loved these pink jeans and those rips and holes were great in hot summer weather. They were like built in air conditioning. It is getting colder and colder so the holes were not nice to have anymore. Maybe I got a little over-enthusiastic with my distressing, I am paying forr it now.  I could stop wearing them until spring comes... but I don't want to.

I decided to line the inside of the jeans behind all the holes and stitch them closed. At least I wanted to try and close the holes the best I could. I chose this brown fabric because it had some pink in it and it was already in my sewing stash. (Using scraps is free!)

 I put the brown fabric into the leg of the jeans and stitched the holes with a zigzag stitch. Some of the holes closed and some of the holes are a little open to let the brown floral fabric show a little. I didn't try to make it perfect, distressed jeans have a messy lived-in look. I didn't want to lose that.

 This is the view from the inside of the jeans after I was done with my sewing. It looks pretty crazy.

I cut off the excess material. It is still a little crazy looking but no one will see that when I am wearing the jeans. 

  The view  from the outside is distressed but the holes are closed. (Is it just me or does the leg on the right look like a face. A sleeping face. Weird.)

I like the closed up holes. The jeans still look distressed. I like that look. I was warmer too, that was my main goal.

*****     BONUS TRACK     *****

Do you have any boot cut jeans in your closet that you haven't worn in a while because they seem too wide at the bottom of the legs? Mine felt like bell-bottoms compared to my skinny jeans.

I wanted to taper the jeans just a little so they were more of a straight leg fit. 

I made them a pinch smaller from the knees down. It was simple but made a big difference.

 Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year end update- These jeans are both worn often, but the pink jeans are 100% my favorites.