Fix It - Jeans

I have been knitting so much that I have been neglecting my sewing machine.  I found time one recent Saturday and fixed Cindy's Miss Me jeans and I also fixed a few other things around the house: 2 Pairs of Vince's jeans, 1 pair of khaki cargos for me, and a pajama top.

1.  Vince's Broken Zipper

Jeans with a broken zipper are jeans ready for the trash.  But, Vince likes wearing jeans until they are completely full of holes or ragged in every sense of the word.  So, here I am enabling him by mending jeans I would like to never see again.  Oh well, it's what I do.  

A zipper tooth was missing near the base of the zipper, so the zipper got off track and only zipped up one side.  I took a pair of Vince's wire cutters and pulled off two more zipper teeth.

I was having fun!  I felt like a dentist, pulling "teeth" with these wire cutters.  I tried putting the zipper back on track, but I needed to pull one more out.  Plink!  So, a total of three teeth pulled out and the zipper finally played nice and caught the other side.

Now, I had to make a new zipper stop at the base so the zipper would always stay on track.  I used some Dual Duty jeans topstitching.

This is thick thread to ensure that it stays tough through washings and the wear and tear of the zipper hitting it.

2. Vince's Open Side-Seam
I'm not sure how this seam made it's way open, but none-the-less, there is the open hole:

This was simple.  I turned the leg inside out and sewed along the seam with the thread that was already on the machine.

3. My Khaki Cargo Loose Zipper 

The last few times I had worn these Cargos, when I use the zipper, the unbroken loose thread would catch the zipper head and get stuck.

See my finger through the detached zipper?  This was a simple one too.  Just sewed along the line where the thread once was.  Trimmed away that loose thread.

Yeah, not the neatest job, but it will get covered by the zipper panel.

4.  My Pajama Top Broken Straps

My pajama top's strap broke.  I only wear it sometimes and I was just going to toss it, but when I was gathering the other items above, I decide to just fix it.

 

One strap broke completely and the other one was hanging on by literally a thread.  I took the zipper foot on my sewing machine and went over it a few times.

It feels good to fix items that were one step from being thrown out.  I usually pride myself on being a fixer, but for some reason, lately, I am in a "clean sweep" mode and just want to get rid of anything that is not in good or better condition.

I want to start paring down my "stuff".  I want to buy a house this year and really have to get rid of junk.  Any pointers for where to even start?  I really want to live with less stuff but I can't shake the "I may need that someday" mentality.  How do I get rid of that kind of thinking??