Beyond Distressed

Happy New Year!  I pray your Christmas was truly merry and your 2015 is off to a prosperous start.  It has been about 19 months since my last post and I kept telling myself "I have to publish a post! I have to publish a post!"  But, sometimes it seems there's never enough time or energy to do all the things you want.  With that said, I intend to maintain a more regular posting schedule - certainly shorter than every 18 months or so.  (wink)

Though my blogging activity has been stagnant, I have been busy in my Sewing Room and will soon share with you some of the things I've been doing while away, beginning with this project.

 

left and right legs, before

Like most young women today, my daughter loves her distressed skinny jeans.  And while they may be cute and trendy, all of the "abuse" applied to the fabric makes them vulnerable to additional and unintended rips and tears, and possibly nudging its wearer from trendy to tacky.  So, she gave me these jeans a few days ago, asking if I could "do something" with them to make them wearable again.

Over the past year, one of the favorite pastimes I've enjoyed is browsing through Pinterest for images and information on...well, everything!  Through my different searches, I've found inspiration on various topics and compiled 54 virtual bulletin boards so far.  Below is an image I recently pinned on my Fashion Fixes board which gave me an idea on how to back the distressed areas with animal-print fabric as a way of reinforcing them and preventing additional tears.  I shared the image with my daughter, who gave me her virtual thumbs-up.

Lately, I've been interested in seeing how other Pinners have recycled and/or "refashioned" thrift store finds into restyled clothing and home decorator items.  The various images I've pinned have sparked a home decorator project idea involving recycled sweaters, so off to my local Salvation Army I went for their annual New Year's Day 1/2 sale.  While there, I also picked up this animal-print, zip-front jacket from Croft & Barrow.  As a whole, the jacket's styling was unimpressive, but I do like some individual elements (sleeves, collar and band) as possible contrast on other items I own and want to restyle.  Additionally, I thought the fabric was sturdy enough for the denim reinforcement, and at a $3 purchase price, I didn't feel bad about cutting into the jacket.

I detached and used the back facing for the jean repair so I could maximize the available fabric for future projects.

Turning the jean leg inside out, I pressed each distressed area flat, trimmed away stray threads and determined how much animal-print fabric was needed for coverage and reinforcement.

 

 

I used stitch witchery to stabilize the animal print while I sewed zig-zag stitches around the distressed holes and to secure the exaggerated rips.

excess fabric was trimmed away

view from right side

Some of the tears required additional reinforcement, so I fused strips of denim fabric on the underside and secured them in place with zig-zag stitching.

I continued working my way through each rip and hole as needed until both pant legs were repaired.

 left and right legs, after

And, the finished product on my satisfied customer.

I'm glad to have shared this project with you and look forward to posting additional ones soon.  Thanks for taking the time to read and please share your comments below.  I love reading your feedback.

Be blessed!

Aisha