Some time ago we were visited by a man called Dan. He works in the denim industry and he stops by to see if we have any good vintage jeans every now and then, and this time he brought us a pair of 1940/50's Levi's that he wanted us to repair!
Nowadays it is rather uncommon to see someone wear a pair of jeans of that age, as most people we talk to who have them keep them as part of a collection rather than to put them on and use them as a part of their wardrobe. Dan however wanted to wear the jeans, which imposed a bit of a problem as they were very torn and were sure to fall apart even more if worn in that state.
When people ask us to mend jeans that look like this we usually say no, because the fabric in the upper part of the thigh was so fragile that it would definitely rip even if we mended the actual holes. But after some discussions we decided to take the commission and repair everything that needed to be repaired!
Usually when we repair jeans we use a sewing machine and a polyester thread in the same color as the jeans, and that works just great for smaller holes but because we wanted to strengthen most part of the upper thigh here I decided to make hand-sewn mendings. When we sew by hand we (almost) never use thread made for use in a sewing machine, we choose thicker and softer cotton threads. Lately I have been using a batch of indigo dyed cotton yarn that we dyed in natural indigo a while back, I love it because the threads blend into the indigo dyed denim so well and it will also fade like the denim does so that the repair will age along with the fabric!
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The back of the jeans with the leather patch is still in it's place, an unusual sight! When you see vintage Levi's jeans of this age with this kind of wear it's very rare that the patch is still hanging in there, because of the way the leather is tanned. There is a section of these patches in this blog post! On the left side of the back pocket there is a repair, and as you can see the stitches are vertically aligned with the side of the pocket and the fabrics thread direction. The belt loop at the back was also in a very poor condition so I decided to replace it to make them wearable with a belt again. Fortunately I had a piece of denim from a pair of jeans that were about the same age as these ones, so I used that to make the new belt loop.
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The fly is in pretty good condition and Dan and I agreed to keep it as it was.
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The upper part of the right front pocket had been previously repaired by cutting off the frayed edge and sowing the pieces together again. I decided not to change that, but to strengthen the entire area with long rows of running stitch.
The upper part of the right front pocket had been previously repaired by cutting off the frayed edge and sowing the pieces together again. I decided not to change that, but to strengthen the entire area with long rows of running stitch.
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A close up of the left knee. Here you can see how the indigo dyed cotton thread really blends in with the worn out denim. I chose not to sew over the white weft threads, as that would have made a very graphical expression and the point was not to make a visual, eye-catching mend but rather a soft renovation which would make the jeans wearable again.
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A close up of the left knee. Here you can see how the indigo dyed cotton thread really blends in with the worn out denim. I chose not to sew over the white weft threads, as that would have made a very graphical expression and the point was not to make a visual, eye-catching mend but rather a soft renovation which would make the jeans wearable again.
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On the inside of the jeans I places patches of fabric that the running stitches secure in place. I used two different materials for this, for the parts where there were no holes but only very fragile material I used pieces of a linen tea-towel that I dyed with indigo a while back when I was making quilts. The tea-towel is much softer than denim, and I used it because I wanted the jeans to retain some of their softness even after they were so heavily patched. As many of you know, mending jeans with denim patches can end with unpleasant results, because the two layers of denim can turn into a stiff and uncomfortable material that is very far from a pair of worn-in jeans.
In some places where there was holes in the fabric there were denim patches in place already, and this is one of them. It's a piece of fabric that is also from the 40's/50's, with the selvedge intact on the lower part ot the patch. It is fastened with white thread that runs along the edges of the patch, so I decided to keep it and only add some indigo stitches in order to fasten the entire patch to the worn denim fabric.
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A close up to show the stitches that are more visible on the inside of the fabric.
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The piece of old denim that I made the belt loop of was big enough to make some repairs with as well, and I used it here. The wear pattern of the patch tells us that it has been a part of the hem of another pair of jeans, and the die-hard wear fans out there can of course see the evenly spaced spots of wear that show traces of some serious roping.
I also patched the pocket bag with a piece of white twill cotton from Douglas's fabric stash.
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The inside of the back, with a hidden rivet peaking out behind the repair.
My conclusion is that I am satisfied with this repair, I think it is as carefully done as I could do it without compromising with the integrity of the garment. Using indigo dyed thread for indigo dyed pants is one of my favorite mending techniques, and I look forward to exploring that field more!
Also I look forward to see how these repairs will age, as I am sure there is much to learn by following up this kind of job to see what it looks like after a year or so.