Loving jeans

Dear friends,
you are warmly welcomed

to my new blog

created

just

for old, worn and lovable

jeans.

Dedicated,

with tender loving care,

to the enduring qualities

of our favorite,

old blue jeans,

I hope you will feel cozy,

enthusiastic and curious,

to wander freely and enjoy this comfy spot.

Though only an infant today,

will grow and prosper

with a rich variety of

creative ideas, useful links and tutorials

to stitch, patch and mend

your denim blues.

Join this blue community
from near and far.

Grab whatever you like!

Print it, use it or change it.

It's time to celebrate

let loose,
and whistle those soul-ful blues!

Yeah!!

And if you're wondering about me and how JeanRepair developed … well this is the tale, and it's one of those ordinary stories in life, with one thing leading to another and then another, without a clue of where I was headed.

It all started with having been designated, in my home, as the one that tattered jeans are brought to in need of repairs  (... which logically may be connected to my collection of every imaginable sewing apparatus from pins to threads stashed all over the house.)  So my devoted flock confidently hand me their jeans and casually ask if I could … "make them cooler" or "fix them for tonight" or "add something" (this is always rather vaguely described leaving much to the imagination) and "fix the holes." They expect miracles and I definitely don't want to disappoint (nor diminish my reputation or pride.) So I eagerly rise to their challenge.

These adventures, fortunately, always end with happy smiles. The owner proudly scampers off with their "new" jeans feeling resourcefully eco-clothed.  And I relish the sense of satisfaction and pleasure (admittedly also a sense of relief that the owner is delighted) from my handwork. Mending is a soothing craft a lot like knitting, and denim is a soft, interesting and easy cloth to sew. It virtually improves with wear and handwork. But learning how to mend jeans successfully has been sometimes an overwhelming journey.

There is no basic mending technique, but rather an endless flow of possibilities, depending on fashion's whims and the way jeans seem to magically adapt to the style of the owner. When you mend, you find yourself looking more closely at the jeans. You realize that no two pairs of jeans are the same and also, depending on your mood (yes it's that nonsensical) you can approach the work at hand differently on a different day of the week. Mending denim is not unlike a blank canvas offering the possibility of individual expression.  What worked on one pair does not necessarily work on the next pair. This is the denim charm and cause for its enduring universal appeal.

So through trial and error, ripping out and re-stitching, word of mouth, browsing through books, the Internet and my own imagination, I have developed a range of methods that incorporate both fashion as well as practical durability.


This bundle of information continued to grow, (along with my expanding pile of discarded denim scraps and waistline…) and finally it all needed desperately to be gathered together into a useful organized fashion. I started to write up the techniques, and post them on my other blog and Scrib. And as I stitched and wrote, I mused about you, and you and you, this wonderful global community of people near and far, who so imaginatively re-fashion and repair their jeans. And I was wondering how to bring us all together to share our enthusiasm, our wishes, interests and experiences. Jeans are after all about people. They weave our lives together through our practical needs, our desire to live a less wasteful lifestyle and our dreamy wishes.

So ...after this long tale, long trail and

direct and indirect inspiration,

the seed was planted that blossomed into

I'm most of all

simply happy you are here
and part of this denim journey!