Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

As it’s been pointed out to me many times before, I am ridiculously sentimental.

A Sentimental Fool, in every sense of the word.

I was reflecting on that this morning as I mended my kitchen apron. I’ve made more than thirty of these upcycled jeans aprons to date (there’s a tutorial here), but THIS is the only one I use. Why? Because it’s made from Small Man’s very old jeans, which he finally grew out of. By then I’d mended them half a dozen times and the denim was disintegrating. But I made it into an apron anyway (see above, Sentimental Fool), and used it constantly until the straps wore out.

So today I patched holes, added a new strap, and replaced the waist ties. Oh and the patches and strap? Made from Big Boy’s old jeans, of course. My denim harvesting skills have stepped up a notch recently since getting to know fellow denim lover Eliu from Colorado. Check out his fabulous video on how to disassemble a pair of jeans (link here), or support him by purchasing his e-zine like I did..

I followed his instructions and harvested these muted top-stitching threads from my stash of old jeans. Aren’t they gorgeous?

I turned the coin pocket from one pair into a small pincushion…

…and twisted strips of another into a bangle (you know how much I love my denim jewellery)…

Going back to the apron – the waistband from Big Boy’s jeans was perfect as a neckband and the red waist ties were made from polyester webbing I found at Reverse Garbage years ago – the cotton straps finally gave up the ghost after repeated washing. So now my apron is made from BOTH my sons’ old jeans. Guess I’ll just have to keep repairing it! ♥