Mending, Mending, Mending...

You know those times when you seem to be constantly doing things, but feeling like nothing gets done? That's what sewing had been a bit like lately. I've got no interesting projects and finished items to show, but I seem to be constantly sewing!

Much of it has been mending…what am I saying, its all been mending! Why is it that the seams seem to go on new clothes after just a few wears these days? I've been stitching up knickers, bras and socks every other day, it feels like. Don't worry, I'll spare you photos of my handiwork.

A really long winded project was fixing my husband's carp fishing, landing net after rats had chewed holes in it. I didn't time it, but I'm guessing it was easily 10 hours of work over several days...weeks... The first attempts were a bit messy, but I figured out my approach after the first couple of holes.

Now I'm back doing sashiko on a pair of jeans I'd thought finished for a while. The thing with jeans when they start to wear through and get holes, is that it's really not just that one area wearing through. More and more holes start to appear and they'll just tear straight across if left. So I've decided to extend the pattern right up to the top of the leg and because I know I won't have enough of the same colour to reach all that way, I may as well blend and move it into different colours.

It started out in yellows, so I'm taking it through orange towards red, with a gradual change over. I've been using three threads for the stitching, so the first few circles I replaced one yellow thread with an orange. Now I'm onto two orange threads with one yellow and nearly ready to go full orange. I should have enough of the red embroidery thread to do a slow merge to red before using some red thread salvaged from the feed bags.

I've not decided whether to carry the embroidery on down the lower leg yet, as that part isn't as worn as the upper leg. If I do, I might go into green that way and make it a rainbow. It could fit with the camo patch I have on one leg. Alternatively, I could take the yellow through the patch and then merge to orange again.

Then there's two more pairs of jeans back on the mending pile for the same reason as these, a dressing gown I want to extend the life of and a growing pile of other jeans I haven't even started on yet...