The Clothing Refashions: Project 1

Well, I promise I had planned on posting these projects earlier.... oops.

Project #1: Operation Hippie Jeans

My first attempt at refashioning a pair of jeans was my Freshman year in college. My roommate, Kayla, and I decided to take a pair of scissors and some bleach to our old jeans and have at 'em for a few hours. The results were pretty fantastic, but needless to say, I don't need to be running around in jeans with gaping holes WAY too high up my thigh anymore. Probably shouldn't have been doing it then. Oh well. It was college.

This more mature version of the refashioned jean was inspired from a website that my mom found..... blanking on the name right now.... something like Crabby Apple....?? Anyway, the idea is that you take scraps of fabric, pin them down to your jeans in a pattern that you like, then sew, sew, sew! The jeans that the woman makes on her site are more in the style of a mosaic. She has certain color patterns that she creates on the pants with varying geometrical shapes of fabric. However, I was more inspired to create a nature scene, rather than a random mosaic. My fabric took on shapes to create a sun, water, branches, trees, flowers, land, birds, etc. Wow. Could I sound more like a child of the 60s, please?

Here are the pictures of the process.....

Step 1: Rip inseam of jeans, open until outside of jeans can lay out completely flat

Step 2: Take scrap fabric and cut out various shapes, making sure to leave a 1/4" space around the shape. This will allow you to sew the shapes down with a 1/4" seam around each shape.

Step 3: Lay fabric shapes down on jeans in the arrangement of your liking and pin down. Notice how my trees have a 1/4" white space around them....? That's what I was talking about in Step 2.

Step 4: Sew all pieces onto jeans with a sewing machine, starting with bottom layers and working your way to the top layers. You want to leave a 1/4" raw edge around each shape to allow for fraying.

Step 5: Once all shapes have been sewn on, re-sew the inseam back together EXACTLY how it was taken apart. Neglecting to do so will result in a pair of jeans that no longer fit you like a glove. Nobody likes that.

Step 6: Wash the jeans in a washer to loosen all fabric edges. This creates a really nice fray around the edge of each shape :-)

Step 7: Hang dry

Step 8: Wear!!!

Just a side: When I put on my hippy jeans to show my mom and dad the finished product, Dad said, "Wow, hun, who knew we raised a child of the 60s?" Mission accomplished.