One of my daughters has a pair of jeans that she is using as a journal. Alright, it’s not really a journal but she’s definitely used this one pair of jeans to record all sorts of happenings from her high school years. Since I promised myself that I wouldn’t make clothes and issue with my teenagers, I turned the other way when she started drawing and marking on these worn jeans a couple years ago. Now, I have to admit that these jeans are pretty nifty and are a bit of a “history” of her high school years.
The jeans really are hers through and through. She keeps mending and patching them (with adds to the fun). She’s even taught herself to embroider so she could go over some of the writing with embroidery thread. Friends have drawn little pictures and some quotations from teachers and passages from books have been recorded on these jeans as well. When she sits and does the mending and upkeep on these jeans, she looks back over the past three years and is able to remember classes, summer activities, camping trips and all sorts of little snippets and pieces from her high school days. What initially seemed like a waist of a perfectly decent pair of jeans has now become a sort of scrap book that even a crusty old mom can appreciate.
It’s not so different really from the box of cherished baby and children’s clothes I’ve saved. When I pull out the box and start to sift through the little jackets and socks and sun hats, I can remember a piece of history–a piece of our family history and explore the nostalgia for those “bygone days.” I think it will be fun to see if my daughter hangs on to her “high school history” jeans for years to come. I can just imagine her own children getting quite a kick out of all those sayings and pictures and snags.
See Also: Outgrown Clothes Make Great Craft and Scrapbook Embellishments