Two ideas I love: originality and thrift.
Both concepts coalesced in a pair of patched jeans.
I bought the jeans for Nora last year at Target. That’s thrifty, but also a little homogenous. Not unique (which is ok—after all, the person standing in the jeans is plenty original). She looked darling in them, and still does…even though initially I bought them a little too big, hoping she’d be able to wear them longer (more thriftiness). Alas, she wore holes in the knees, just when they began to fit perfectly. Which shouldn’t surprise me–at least half of her playtime is spent living (galloping, pouncing, slithering, stalking) on her knees. There is lots of knee time in Wonderland. Which isn’t thrifty so much as it is delightfully free spirited. You might say…. original. I just had to point that out. That sweet connection. Back to the jeans—
I decided to patch the knees rather than ditch the damage (thrifty, yes?), actually excited at the opportunity to turn economical, mass produced Target jeans into something made just for Nora. Something personalized, original.
And while simple square patches could be really fun (and I would like to try a variation on the square theme sometime), I thought I’d personalize Nora’s jeans with flowers. I drew a simple, stylized flower; that drawing became my pattern. I used my pattern to cut flowers from denim left over from other, previous jean alterations (we’re always making jeans shorter around here), and sewed them down (leaving raw edges, which over time will fray and make a fun textural contrast to the worn denim around it). First with a free-form darning stitch that matched the blue jean color, and then in a more decorative running stitch with topstitching thread. It was just a little tricky using my sewing machine (with the darning foot, feed dogs down) to sew patches on such tiny jean legs, but it worked.
Nora was thrilled with the patched jeans, though she told me next time she wants heart patches. Because (she said) she loves me and I love her (she writes this on love notes all the time: I love you Mom and you love me Love Nora). So hearts are better than flowers. Of course (relevance is beginning to matter to Nora). I told her that I would honor her request, but (feeling slightly disappointed that she wasn’t totally taken with my flowers) I pointed out that I love her AND I love flowers and wanted to show her my love WITH flowers, which was why I sewed flowers on her jeans. She smiled patronizingly and let me keep my reasons. As long as she gets hearts next time, she’s good. And this, by the way, is how it goes. If a personalized, original product is my desired outcome, I really ought to take my client’s wishes to heart.
