If you've hit the stores for the spring fashions, you will find jeans endowed with trim, zippers and embroidery. Are you blown away by the prices? I sure was! Plain jeans will not fit the "cool crowd" at school but they certainly fit my budget, better then the pre-trimmed ones. This week I will share some ideas to save us all some money on dressing up jeans!
If you have a straight stitch machine, shop for trims and braids. One of my favorite sites for inspiration is Ginstrim Co.. The possibilities are absolutely endless with all these trims available.
I always pre-shrink trims and the garment before adding the trim to the garment. It is well worth taking the time to do this! Prevent shriveled, puckered trim later. See How to Pre-shrink Trims to learn my method.
Most of today's ready made jeans have trim any where below the knee. Use a disappearing pen or tailors chalk to create a meandering line around the pants leg or any desired design. Use these lines to place your trim.
To finish the ends of the trim:
- Many of the trims are polyester which will melt. Carefully use a match or lighter to singe the ends end prevent it from fraying.
- Another method is to turn under the ends just barely covering where you started attaching the trims. Use caution to prevent a lumpy end.
Be creative and go a step further then the ready made jeans. Add trim to the belt loops and pockets. You may have to hand stitch many of these detail areas but the results can be stunning.
If you have one of the many machines on the market with built in embroidery stitches, your possibilities are endless. Use some of those stitches you have never used before, to embroider the same kind of lines that you would for applying trim. Learn about all the specialty threads available to expand the possibilities. Regular thread will not give you the results that the embroidery threads specialize in! Experiment! Combine embroidery and trim, to have unlimited creative possibilities. Janome - Project 0004 - Decorate a Denim Dress, gives you ideas for any machine you own, which has simple embroidery capabilities. Visit Free Motion Embroidery for more ideas to put simple machine capabilities to good use.
Machine Embroidery and digitizing makes your design possibilities truly endless! There are a huge amount of free downloadable designs to choose from and more that you can purchase. A single embroidered design is found on many of the ready made jeans as well as other clothing. Use your creativity to embellish ready-made jeans and save money to invest in more specialty threads.
Don't forget your fabric stash, when considering ways to decorate denim! Bias strips of animal prints or tie dyed fabrics makes an excellent trim. Using the bias grain will give you the bending and curving possibilities that you want to be creative.
Create a flower garden on your jeans or jacket. Silk Ribbon Embroidery makes the possibilities endless!
