Just after we married,  we had to choose how to spend the cash we received for our wedding.  At that time in our lives, a new sewing machine seemed to be the best buy.  I enjoyed sewing.  Little did I know how practical a tool it would be.

I have made flannel shirts, children’ s night caps and night gowns, satin fancy dresses, bath robes and costumes.  But the big job is sewing on patches.

My husband wears jeans every day.  He recycles some of his dress shirts to wear around the farm.  He wears a billed cap every day almost all day and work shoes.  He uses jackets and rubbers when needed.

It is the shirts and jeans that seem to break down and need repair.  That is how I can help him.  The shirts mainly need a seam mended or a button sewed on.  But it is the jeans that need most of the attention.

Since he milks cows with a milk machine without a parlor, he must squat to clean the udder and place the milker on his cows.  That squatting dictates that when he gets a hole in the knee or on the front of the leg, the whole front of the jean leg needs to be patched.  Otherwise, the seams irritate the knee.

Where do I get patches that size?  Eventually the jeans get too bad that I have to throw them away.  But I don’t toss out the whole thing.  Before I do, I cut out the back side of each leg.  Hence I have a piece of denim that will cover the front of a leg that needs patching.

I have done a bunch of them over the years.  Thus, I have collected a lot of denim.  I have visualized other projects I could make from denim.   I hope one day to have time to make them.  Till then, I have a lot of patching to do.

photo credit: ocean yamaha via photopin cc
photo credit: LornaJane.net via photopin cc