I Haven't Bought New Jeans in 50 Years — A Retired Seamstress's Old Mending Trick

#seamstress #jeans #mending I haven't bought a new pair of jeans in fifty years, and I don't go about in rags. The habit the dressmaker who trained me taught me at fifteen is to hold every pair up to the window and patch the thin place from the inside before it's a hole. Here it is, with the darning rows that make a patch hold, the four places jeans always wear, how often the jeans makers say to wash them, what the dryer is really doing, the zipper that isn't broken, how to shorten jeans and keep the original hem, and the sliver of soap I'd sooner lose my scissors than be without. Come, sit. Bring your mending. I'm Grandma Lotte, a retired seamstress. Fifty years at the machine, forty-two of them in my own little shop in Milwaukee, and there is nothing in your closet I haven't fixed. Chapters 0:00 Fifty years, no new jeans 0:46 The work pants at the window, 1962 2:12 The one thing to hold 2:37 20. Hold them to the light, and patch the thin place before it's a hole 3:42 19. The darning rows 4:29 18. Yes, it shows a little 5:03 17. Where to look 5:45 16. Inside out, and cold 6:16 15. Wash them less than you think 7:00 14. Close everything before the wash 7:35 13. Patch a new pair the week you buy it 8:28 12. The dryer 9:14 11. Hem the heel before it frays through 9:57 10. The belt loop and the pocket corner 10:48 9. The zipper that won't stay closed 11:30 8. Keep the original hem 12:12 7. Werner's jeans 12:50 6. A glued patch is a start, not a mend 13:29 5. Turn them inside out in the store 14:04 4. When they're done, they're patches 14:36 3. The soap 15:22 2. Patch it thin 15:56 1. It was never the jeans 16:33 Tonight, one thing Tell me the one thing in your closet you can't bring yourself to throw away, and why. I read every one. #denimrepair #patchjeans #clothesrepair