jeans | Nice piece of work

It was time to turn a pair of hand-me-down straight-legged jeans into flares, and get rid of the bulky pockets at the back which made it look like I was growing two carbuncles on my backside.

I started with this tutorial and changed bits of it as I went along.

The inserts were cut from an old pair of jeans that had seen better days in certain areas, and were obviously never going to get mended while in my possession.

I zigzagged the inside seams because that wasn’t in the tutorial, and I also topstitched after ironing flat. Then I added a few random stitches in perle embroidery cotton. Different on each side. Because why not? I suppose I should have machined-stitched the hem in a light colour to match the original hem, but I was getting close to the end of the project and needed to finish it before running out of steam.

The horrible back pockets got ripped off and replaced with new ones from a pile of denim samples someone once gave me. I’ve been hoarding those samples for far too long and it’s time to use them up. I see now that I didn’t align the pockets when sewing – but finished is finished and it’s good enough for me.

I enjoyed doing this when I finally got around to it, especially when it came to putting a big tick next to “flare jeans” on the to-do list.

It’s only Kate’s ScrapHappy initiative that inspires me to write a blog post these days; I’m hoping to get some more creative energy flowing again soon. In the meantime, here’s a list of crafty people who also participate in ScrapHappy once a month:

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue,Lynda,
Birthe,Turid,Susan,Cathy, Tracy,
Jill, Jan, Moira,Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny,Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol,
Preeti, Debbierose, Nóilin and Viv

I found this idea somewhere on the interweb recently and there are loads of similar ideas out there. Here is my version:

My apologies for the lousy photos, it wasn’t easy taking a pic of myself in the skirt in the bathroom mirror while balancing on a wonky stool.

I loved the original jeans but they’d gone all baggy on me so, instead of passing them on to someone else, I decided to try this. Next time I’ll cut off more of the denim but I’m happy with my first effort. I still have to take the waist in a bit, but after all the fiddling around I’ve decided it’s worth spending some time on and doing it properly. Going to use this tutorial.

The fabric I’ve used really is scrappy stuff – some are smaller sample pieces from a textile importer that I’ve sewn together first, the zebra is from a top I made about 20 years ago, the groovy blue/purple was in a box of scraps from a neighbour, and the pretty pink blossoms were also left over from a top. The handstitching on the back was just something to keep my hands occupied while I was watching the last episode of Endeavour, Season 8. Devastated to have come to the end of young Morse, I just loved this series.

I’ve been inspired to write this ScrapHappy post by Kate at Tall Tales from Chiconia. On the fifteenth of every month lots of people often publish a ScrapHappy post: Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Bekki , Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin, Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2 , Bear, Noreen, Preeti, Edith and Jule