This simple project is a great way to get kids learning to sew. As they become more confident, they can be as creative as they like with patterns and colours and it's also a great way to add new life to old clothes.
Embroidered Jeans
Embroidered Jeans
Personalize your plain clothes with some simple embroidery stitches to create something that will really get you noticed. Chain stitches form cute lazy daisies when grouped together with sequins and beads, adding a glittery finishing touch. Make up your own designs and use them to decorate jackets and bags as well.
Materials
Pair of jeans
Felt-tip or air-soluble pen
Scissors
Embroidery floss (thread) in pretty colors, including green for the leaves, and a needle
Scissors
Needle and thread
Sequins
Bugle beads
1. Mark the position of the flowers at the bottom of your jeans with either a felt-tip or an air-soluble pen. Keep the marks as small as you can. Cut a length of embroidery floss (thread) and tie a knot at one end. Working from the inside of one of the legs, sew five chain stitches in a flower shape. Finish with a knot inside the leg and trim the floss. Repeat for the rest of the flower—we have sewn three flowers in three different colors.
2. Cut a length of green embroidery floss and tie a knot at one end. Thread the floss. Working from the inside of the leg, sew three separate chain stitches to look like leaves around the flowers. Finish with a knot inside the leg and trim the floss.
3. To add sequins, cut a length of thread, and thread the needle at one end. Starting from inside the leg, sew a few small stitches close to a flower to fix the thread in place. Bring the needle up through the denim in the center of the flower, push it through the sequin hole, then back through the denim at the sequin edge. Bring the needle back through the sequin again and back down through the denim on the other side. Sew on more sequins in the same way. Finish with a few small stitches on the inside of the jeans. Trim the thread.
4. Sew on bugle beads in between the flower petals in the same way as the sequins, stitching just once to hold them in place. Stitch back through the jeans and finish with a few small stitches. Trim the thread. You can, if you wish, repeat the above steps on the other leg of your jeans.
For more sewing projects for kids, check out Sewing for Children by Emma Hardy.