We’ve made it through another week of lockdown! I think I’ll have a large glass of wine tonight in celebration!
Before lockdown started I made myself a pair of jeans, with thoughts of planning a jeans making workshop later in the year. These are the Ginger Jeans from Closet Case Patterns.
But since lockdown started I’ve had a project in mind that involves destroying lots of jeans! You might remember I wrote about this before.
This is my large collection of old jeans and denim offcuts that I have collected over the years.
The pattern that I’m making is the Lichen Duster from Sew Liberated. I’ve made a few Sew Liberated patterns and I really like their thoughtful approach to mindful sewing. Encouraging the sewist to take their time with the project and use considered techniques for your garment.
Meg advocates for a sustainable sewing practice and for care and mending of your existing wardrobe, so with this in mind I thought the Lichen Duster would be a perfect project for all my old jeans.
The first step (after sticking together the 66 pages of A4 paper in the PDF pattern) was to sort my denim. I wanted to use only 100% cotton denim. So I separated out anything with any lycra or polyester content and put those back into a box to use for future projects.
Using the 100% cotton jeans, I then started with the largest pattern pieces and considered the correct pieces to use for each.
My trusty unpicker and scissors were used to cut up the jeans and remove bulkier features such as the pockets on the back of this jeans skirt.
Ensuring that I got a good mix of different denims throughout and where ever possible using the same pair of jeans to keep it symmetrical and balanced.
As soome of the seams in the Lichen Duster will be visible when worn I have decided to go for a Hong Kong finish on my seams with some fabulous retro orange floral bias binding.
I still have a couple of the longer pieces to cut out, but they are longer than a single pair of jeans, so I’m going to have to seam some together before I cut them out.
I’m really excited to see how this turns out and I hope that it will be a real heirloom piece and I’ll love wearing it for a long time as the denim continues to soften and age.
I will keep you posted with my progress and will of course share the finished garment with you once it’s done.
Love & stitches
Alison xx
PS Dont miss this evening’s iSEWlation Sew Together by Zoom – details below.
Buy Gift Vouchers now to use on future courses/workshops
iSEWlation Sew Together by Zoom – Friday 15th May 6.30pm
Pay as you can/Pay as you feel HERE β If you are in a financially secure position, please pay whatever you feel is right. If your income like mine is precarious at best right now, then join us for free.
Bagladybird β Learn to Sew β Friday iSEWlation Sew Together
Time: May 15th, 2020 18:30 London
- Join Zoom Meeting HERE
- Meeting ID: 358 852 964
- Password: 016654
