December - Jeans (Week 1)

You repair the thing until you remake it completely.

-Louise Bourgeois (as quoted in Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works, edited by Germano Celant)

Welcome to the last stitch journal of 2023! This has been a year and the next few weeks are going to go by fast. For my last stitch journal of the year, I'm using a pair of my favorite jeans. I bought this pair from Stitch Fix (I get all my jeans through Stitch Fix) in 2021. They're super soft and comfy and I wore them out. I recently bought a new pair and love them even more the second time around.

I wanted to work with a pair of jeans for my last stitch journal. Jeans are one of those weird articles of clothing that I love, but also have a complicated relationship with. I can remember putting on a pair of dark wash Michael Kors jeans (that I bought at TJ Maxx) for the first time and thinking I looked absolutely amazing. I also remember struggling to find jeans that fit in a way that didn't make me feel like the least attractive person on the planet. Jeans are a lot.

There's also a lot I can do with this old pair of jeans. I wanted to pay homage to visible mending this month since it's a big inspiration for this year's project. This is not visible mending, but I was inspired by the techniques and mindfulness associated with the practice. I also want to try some other fun things I've seen to embellish denim, so future weeks will focus on those practices including some pocket decoration and creating layered insets for patching holes. And Louise Bourgeois's fabric work continues to be an inspiration. I think this month is going to be a lot of fun.

Starting with stitching that's close to visible mending on the crotch of the jeans. This is one of the most common areas where visible mending is done on jeans and pants. This particular pair is too far gone to save. That's why it's this month's stitch journal item.

First side - I found it easier to give myself guidelines.

Here's this week's recap:

December 1

December 2

December 3

December 4

December 5 - finished the first side. The image below is of the side off the hoop.

December 6

December 7

December 8

December 9 (above and below)

To give you an idea of how you can see through the holes once jeans start to fade like this.

Week One complete

Next week, I'll start working on one of the holes in this pair of jeans. One hole had sort of started and I helped it along; the other I cut for the purpose of this month's stitch journal. Both are going to use layering and other fabrics to create a little scene in the hole.

Because Everyone Should Start a New Hobby in December....

I finally started to learn how to crochet! I've wanted to learn for several years now, but never got myself focused enough to do it. Over the summer, I bought the yarn and pattern to make a "middle finger blanket" from Furls. The pattern was designed by Mathew Boudreaux, Mx. Domestic on Instagram. It's amazing and it finally got me planning to crochet.

But then I put it off again. I did a bunch of other embroidery patterns and projects, the crochet supplies staring at me from their lovely tote bag in my studio. I follow a bunch of local artists and shops and one of the shops hosted a beginner crochet class last Friday. I took the class, learned some basics, and now I need to practice. I'm probably years away from making the middle finger blanket, but I'll get there.