I hate throwing things away. I will wear clothes until they are falling apart & even then, I’ll hang onto them until they are dragging themselves out the door! At the moment, money is a bit tight so clothes shopping is not high on the agenda. So when my only pair of jeans ripped because they were so worn, I knew I had to buy new ones. I tried patching them up but it was a shoddy effort. I kept the ripped jeans, thinking they would do for wearing when I was painting or in the garden or something. As I don’t do these things very often (!) I thought about doing something else with them. Then I remembered the craze a few years ago of upcycling jeans into skirts by adding some fabric. Right, I thought, I’ll give this a go. Plus it meant I could buy some fabric that I knew I would use and not just add to my stash!

I found this lovely green vintage fabric at a vintage fair at Oriel y Parc in St. Davids when I was visiting my mum a few weekends ago. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would look great as the fabric for my jean skirt. I didn’t have a pattern to follow, but thought it couldn’t be that difficult. So I started out by undoing the seams on the legs of the jeans. This was very easy with a Quick Unpick and didn’t take too long. Then I chopped off the bottom parts of the legs and set about measuring the length of the skirt. This is usually where I fall down when it comes to making things, and I really want to make more clothes for myself. (Part of me thinks it’ll be cheaper, plus I’m not a high street fashion kind of gal.) But this time, I managed to get the length right. Then I had to measure the fabric for the triangular space between the legs. This wasn’t too difficult & it didn’t need too much fabric, which was great as it left me with enough fabric to make my lavender bags. The sewing machine made this so easy & it didn’t take long at all, though I live for the day when I can sew something together without getting stabbed a million times by the pins!

Voile! I know I could’ve reused the bottom of the jeans when hemming but by this time I’d had enough, and I think that exceeds my ability on the sewing machine anyway! It’s not perfect and I don’t think Stella McCartney should be worried at this point, but it’ll do for me! It’s cute, it’s something else I can wear, even if it’s just around the house & maybe into town. I’m pretty pleased that I coped well using the sewing machine. It’s something I want to be really confident with, but I’m not. Using it more will help, so it’s good that I’ve got a few other projects up my sleeve!

I’m so pleased my crafty mojo is back. I guess it’s difficult when you work from home & it’s your job to be creative to then switch off & be creative in a different way. But time & distance has certainly helped. The other issue I’ve found is cramming too much into days off. I’ve realised I can’t do everything so I need to prioritise & start with the things I least want to do, leaving me time to get on with the things I enjoy!