Now that I am the proud mother of 3 boys, I've been pondering ways to increase jean life. I normally would peruse garage sales and thrift stores for them and snatch them up whenever I could. This worked well except for two things. 1) they didn't always fit right and then I'd have to get rid of them 2) they would wear out "prematurely" in my estimation (because they'd already been worn).
With 3 boys, I can see us going through a lot more jeans in the coming years. So, I began to think of how I could stretch out the life of the jeans we already own, as well as keeping them looking tip-top on most occasions. I don't mind jeans with holes in them around the house for playing (another bonus to homeschool), but prefer hole-less jeans for town and such.
I know they make double front jeans for men, but as of yet have not found them for boys. New jeans are expensive especially x3. Buying patches for so many jeans gets expensive too, and they are so thick that it makes the knees not bend very easily either. I've also tried sewing old jean pieces as patches into the new to make my own double layer knees, but it didn't work very well either (they still wore out rather quickly). My solution came as I was folding some Dickie's pants that one of the boys has. They had interfacing ironed into the pants around the knees straight from the factory. Eureka! I tried this at home with a couple pairs, but it wore through right away. It must have been too thin (I just used ordinary interfacing). I then went to the fabric store and found the sturdiest iron-on interfacing they had (the actual cotton fabric with glue on the back for putting in collars of shirts) and bought some. If I could patch up the jeans before they wore out, maybe they'd look better for much longer.
I then came home and tried it out. I ironed the interfacing on the inside of the new jeans and then ran a row of stitching around the whole "patch" to reinforce the corners. (I have tried putting on iron-on patches in the past and the glue loosens at the corners after a few washings- not good!)
Here's what it looks like from the inside. It's still a bit of work to add to my day, but I think it's such a shame to have to throw jeans away so soon after just the knees wear out and the rest of the jeans are fine. I'm certainly not up to making crafts out of them and you can only use so many pairs of cut offs! I do wish I had an "arm" on my sewing machine which would make stitching around these much easier, but I don't, so I just bunch it up as necessary and go sewing along.
So far I've been happy with the results. The jeans that I've done it to look great and the fibers stay stronger as they stay intact much better. It'll take a few years before Isaac is wearing the jeans that Luke is in now, so I can't tell you if I'll get 3 boys through them or not! I still shop for second hand jeans when I can, but have also found a fairly good deal on new jeans at Old Navy. They go on sale for $10/pair. Dark wash (which shows less stains and the stitching from the patches) and an adjustable waist (necessary for skinny boys!) Makes me a happy Mom. Now to do the same for shoes...(please help!)
How do you stretch your kids clothing life with your budget? Where do you find the best deals?
