Right. So there is a reason why I have 60+ projects just waiting to be completed. Well, a couple of reasons.
First, here in the Pacific Northwest when the weather is awesome, you go outside and spend as much time as possible outside. We have had a gorgeous Fall and I spent a lot of time working on my garden. But now the rain is starting to creep back into our lives so there will be lots more sewing.
Second, when I'm working on a huge project (like the map) I get bored and if I make a little mistake that requires me to take out a huge portion (fine, it was a big mistake) of what I have already completed then I get discouraged and any other project out there looks a whole lot more interesting. Like this project!
So my friend, Angela, is pretty awesome. She has a little girl a few years older than mine and she has gifted me time and again with hand-me-downs. It's fantastic! Lately my daughter has taken to jumping off of....well, everything. Which means a lot of skid knees. And ripped jeans. And I hate waste. HATE IT. So, she ripped open her jeans last week and was pretty upset about it until I told her I would make a patch in whatever shape and color she wanted. She chose a yellow heart and I obliged.
My goal here was to whip this out in like 30 minutes doing a pretty blanket stitch using my sewing machine. It didn't turn out so well since the jeans aren't big enough to slip around the machine, so I had to handstitch the border which took about 30 minutes. So, it probably took me an hour. And that's an hour I could have spent on the map, but.....this was more fun! I'll get back to it.
So, here in pictures, is what I did. Questions? Post a comment and let's talk about it!
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| The jeans in all their ripped g |
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| Steam-A-Seam 2. Seriously, the easiest stuff to use. |
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| Used a cookie cutter as my template |
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| Tracing the heart on the Steam-A-Seam |
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| You can barely see it but I also traced the heart onto a piece of thin plastic to use in the future |
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| Tracing |
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| Cutting. Those are my "nice" scissors. For sewing purposes only! |
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| The patch |
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| Making sure it covers the hole |
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| Ironing that bad boy on |
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| Ironed and ready to go |
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| I hand-sewed it on the edges to give a little bit more strength |
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| All done! |
You can't tell but I also got the denim patches you can buy in the sewing section at the super market and put that on the inside for more strength and durability.
Well, I get to do this again pretty soon. Another pair of jeans was ripped this morning and a blue elephant was requested.
Kate: I love reading your blog. Keep it going:-) Aunt Barb
ReplyDeleteThanks Aunt Barbara! I am having a good time documenting what I am working on if only for posterity's sake! :)
ReplyDeleteJust stumbled on to your site and I would bet that your "craft stash" probably looks a lot like mine! I too get bored and have a tendency to put things down half finished.
ReplyDeleteBut I wanted to give you a tip for the next time you have to patch a pair of jeans. I was watching a craft show (imagine that!) when I realized that they were using a seam riper to ripe out the inside seam of the jeans leg to add a patch of embroidery and then re-seaming the pants! What a novel idea and one I would have never thought of on my own!!!
Love your site and will bookmark it for the future!
Thanks for stopping by! That is such a great idea; I never would have thought to open the seam. I'm going to have to look online for the video-I've got a couple more pairs that will need repairing soon. :)
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