Nine lives and three lives

 At some point when my older son was in middle school, he is thirty two now, you do the math, I bought him some Arizona jeans. I no longer remember the price.  He wore them until he outgrew them. My younger son then inherited them. 

My younger son has been wearing those jeans for at least fifteen years.  Every once in a while my son brings me those jeans to mend. I can't count how many times I have mended them. A few weeks back my son brought them to be mended again. The thighs were so worn out they resembled gauze.

 I reinforced the thighs from the wrong side. I added a piece of linen to the inside of each pant leg and then stitched the new fabric to the fragile denim. That ought to  buy another year or so of wear.

 I used yarn  to graft the linen inside of the pant leg to the denim.

I used machine stitching on the other leg to do the same task. The knee blow outs took place in the past

I have reinforced the  top of the waistband with various bits of fabric over the years. I did a few rows of blanket stitching in red cotton near the fly button yesterday.

The seat of the jeans has been reinforced with stitching and internal patches over the years.

The rips near the hem were reinforced with several layers of cotton shirting that had started life as a duvet cover. The duvet cover wore out and I used the good bits to make a set of napkins. The bits that I used to mend the pants are off-cuts from the napkins. It's just a Sundae of  reduce reuse and recycle.

My son loves how soft his older brother's pants are. I suppose that i will keep mending them until he no longer wants me to.

When my husband saw the completed jeans last night he joked that they had nine lives.

And now onto an object with three lives.

Several years ago ( I think that my oldest was still in high school) I bought an elastic belt with a really cool closure and really ugly patent leather side panels. I bought the belt assuming that one day I would replace the ugly patent leather with something more attractive.

A bunch of years later I did.

I replaced the patent leather with suede cut from a skirt that I had purchased at a thrift store to cut up. Several months ago my husband commented that the belt looked tired. He wasn't wrong.

I have a metallic leather skin that has been marinating in my fabric closet for at least a decade.  One of my sewing friends jokes about her Tuit  list. The stuff that eventually she will get to it. This belt was definitely on that list. After a bit of cutting and slightly fiddly sewing, I now have a revived belt.

I took the photos of me wearing the belt in a mirror so please excuse the haze.

I assume that I will wear this version of the belt until the metallic leather looks yukky and then figure out  life four of this belt.

We have reached the dreary part of winter. The autumn leaves are gone. We still haven't had the joy of a good snowfall.

It has been unseasonably warm.

I am hankering for the magic of a snowy day.