author intrusion

jeans to capris

Gwynnie is one of those lithe children who has to belt her jeans if they're going to be long enough, and by the time the waist fits her, she's wearing highwaters. So I came up with a solution. Make the short jeans into capris instead of buying capris. (If you think buying fair trade etc. is hard for adults, try doing it for kids. With the way they grow, it's almost impossible to do it without breaking the budget.) I cut off about four inches of length.

Here's upper detailing.

Here's the detailing on the leg.

And here they are in full. 

With fabric, floss and trim, it came to about $8.00. Pretty cheap, eh?  Time spent? These took awhile. Probably about fifteen hours. But I found an enormous added benefit. I'm healthier emotionally (depression-wise) when doing small work with my hands. I've always noticed when I'm knitting, or drawing or what have you, I seem to do better. While we were up at the cabin, Ty watched a special on the National Geographic channel that said using your fine motor skills actually releases dopamine and lifts your mood.  Who knew?

I did a very cool pair for Ty who blew out the knees of her favorite jeans a few months ago. Will put pictures of those up later. The stitches I've used here are quite simple. I think the trick is finding the right fabric with interesting, larger patterns, like the paisley shown here.

Hope you all have a great Monday!

saga of the capris: part five and final

I'm sure you're almost as glad as I am that the saga of the capris is coming to a close. Here are some pictures of the final outcome. (From top to bottom, front, back, and favorite spot of the project for me: the knee.)

This took me hours and hours. Had I chosen simply to patch, I think it would have taken about twenty percent of the time. I learned the process as I went and the stitching picked up its pace the further in I got. This project went far beyond patching to a lot of embellishment, but honestly, folks, some of us crazies still want to look stylish, even if we are patching our jeans! Can I hear an amen?

What I got out of this:

1. It's a good feeling not to spend extra money if you don't have to.
2. I loved these capris from the get- go, and now I get to wear them a lot longer.
3. It's been great to work with my hands again. I think humans need that in one form or another. I found it settled me somewhat, and I loved having a project to grab when going to the pool or a place where we were just going to sit and talk.
4. It's really satisfying to create something pretty. That's all, just something pretty.

Anybody else start on their own project? Please share!

lisa