Wild and Free running.

As you may remember from previous posts, I recycled all my daughter's jeans into shorts for the summer to get extra wear from them as they would never be big enough for her next year. So we had to buy more jeans... which is something we did not find very easy at all. Everywhere we looked only had skinny fit jeans... these maybe in fashion but for my 2 year old, they are not something she wants to wear as she finds them far too restrictive, and there really should be much more choice for the active toddler.

So we were faced with a challenge to find her some looser fitting jeans that she liked and she could move freely in! As we are fond of recycling things, I had a quick rummage through the bags of clothing that I had put aside as it was no longer a good fit and found some of my sons old jeans. He is a little older than my daughter, so I decided to merge a pair of his with a pair of her old ones.

This is the first step we have added the pink scarf belt from my daughters old jeans to my sons old pair. My daughter loved this belt and she loves pretty embroidery on jeans too so this leads to my next step.

We cut the embroidered flower motive from her old jeans and stitched it to the new jeans with contrasting cotton. This however could be done much easier with special stuff for iron on patches.

These then are the finished jeans... very simple, strong, loose fitting and with a little touch of the things my daughter loves... We call them 'Big Brother Jeans' and best of all they were free, just took a little time, a few adjustments and she loves them... perfect for garden play.

Here they are on, 'what do you think?' perfect jeans for a little girl who loves to run wild and free through fields and explore the woods and climb trees with no restrictions.

Plenty of room for cartwheels and other tumbles.

Dancing too!

Crawling  and rolling in the dirt!

and even sliding down steps. My daughter is a very 'spirited young lady' and being able to move her legs freely and to have the most fun is very high up on her list of priorities.

To have a CHOICE of different styles of jeans would be lovely but just to let you know we will NOT buy clothing just because it was the only thing available! We are also saving more of my sons old jeans to try and decorate them with fabric paints in the future, another fun project.

I have recently been given lots of patterns on free cycle, some modern and some vintage and we will be trying to make some of our own clothing by adapting these. There are also many patterns and tutorials available on line to try.

Just to let you know after our third trip into the city and after visiting lots and lots of shops we did find a pair of looser fit jeans that she liked. What a challenge!

Recycling Jeans

My daughter loves denim shorts, last year we bought her some but were very disappointed with them so this year I thought I would recycle some of her jeans from the winter. They were already too short as my children are quite tall and the knees were worn through, so only fit for the bin really.... or maybe not! I had previously repaired these jeans once with this embroidered patch I made to make them last longer.

They lasted all winter with this patch and many people commented on how cute they were, but alas they are no more. First I cut off the legs at the point the knees had started to fray and get holes in.

Then folded up the bottom twice, pressed it with an iron ( yes sometimes I use it for more than craft projects) and stitched it at the seam to hold it in place.

There you go, as simple as that and it only took a few minutes and we have re-used a pair of jeans that were destined for the bin. My daughter is really happy as they were her favourite jeans because they have embroidered flowers and birds on them. As they were recycled by me, I could make them the perfect length... just right for playing in the garden as you can see below.

Definitely getting our money's worth out of this pair of jeans and why shouldn't we?... children grow so fast.

Not so guilty pleasures?

    As you can see I have been trying to make good use of my time now that my university courses have finished for this year. I have been putting absolutely everything off until the studying was finished as I kept feeling guilty if I did something that wasn't studying!!... Even if I was up to date or ahead with my studies or the project was small, as in the patch on my daughters jeans that you can see above, I wouldn't allow myself the time off from studying because I felt guilty. I will have to work on this and be a bit more lenient with myself... everyone is allowed free time... right?

   The patch above was one of the first things I did after the exam finished, before you laugh and point out all the mistakes in the sewing I must just say that this is the first time I have done anything like this for a very long time and my daughter really loves the little bee. I have chosen to patch the jeans as they still fit and have a lot of wear left in them. The embroidery on the patch also fits in completely with the jeans as they have lots embroidery all over them in the same style.

    I have also been catching up with some reading and have got through quite a few books and I have been trying to re learn how to crochet... I have practised all of the stitches and I am now the creator of many granny squares with which I am going to make into bedding for my daughter's dolls cot. I am hoping to give it a vintage feel hence the crochet blanket and maybe a patchwork quilt too.

   It is so nice to have some free time to do all the things I've been putting off for so long... It is quite hard to shake the feeling that I should be studying... but I definitely have a few months off to enjoy my not so guilty pleasures.