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Mending Week: Patching Jeans Tutorial

'What's Mending Week?', you say. Click here.

I think anyone with a boy between the ages of 4 and 10 (maybe older even) can bemoan with me all the holey jeans!! I think my son wore through 4 or 5 pairs since last September! So I got some tips from a Sister-in-law and started fixing. Here's how I do it:

Grab an old pair of jeans that are beyond fixing and cut a circle large enough to cover the hole/worn out spot plus some for seam allowance (very specific isn't it :) ). Then cut another circle out of iron-on interfacing.
Place the glue side of the interfacing to the right side of the fabric and sew around the edges about a 1/4" from the edge.
Trim the seam allowance to about 1/16".
Pull the interfacing from the jean fabric and cut a slit in it.
Like so...
Then flip it right sides out and finger press the edges smooth (you don't want to use the iron until your ready to place it). Then press it onto your jeans.
Slide the pant leg onto your sewing machine and twist it so you can get to the right side closest to the seam. Set you machine for a tight"ish" zig-zag stitch and stitch over the edge as far as you can go around the circle. Then take it off the machine.
Turn the jeans around and put the leg back on, this time starting from the waist. Zig-zag, starting at the right side again, and overlap a few stitches at the beginning and end.
And here we have a pair of jeans that can be worn for a couple more months!
picture taken as he was running out the door to catch the bus this morning! :)

So...do you patch your boys jeans? How do you do it?

7 comments:

  1. looks great...i could sure stand to do this with a few pairs of my sons pants

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  2. I have made some "fun" patches for my son's jeans. I basically just appliqued a simple design over the hole in the knees, like a planet, racecar, etc. The trickiest part is getting the leg under the needle.

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  3. You can use my post if you want...

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  4. I have patched my nephews' jeans in a very similar fashion only I used Heat 'N Bond instead of the interfacing. They love picking out fun fabrics to cover the holes.

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  5. I use that same trick of turning with fusible interfacing to make appliqués like this one: http://www.random-charm.com/wp-content/uploads/birdskirtapplique.jpg
    So far I have only patched a few knees, one by hand, and one decoratively when I first made the pants. Usually he grows out of the length before he puts holes in them so I end up cutting them off into shorts anyway. He's only just now getting big enough to where I can reasonably get the free arm of the machine into the pants leg to sew a patch on by machine.
    Here's another way I've dealt with large holes in jeans: http://www.random-charm.com/?p=810

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  6. http://vincens.typepad.com/craftsforboys/2010/05/anthonys-patches.html has a a neat spin on patching holes in boy's jeans. My boy isn't too happy with patches these days. I've started putting an iron-on patches on the inside of new jeans. That seems to prolong the life of the knee area.

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  7. Thanks for sharing. You can design/create your own iron on patches if you want to add a little something extra next time you rip your jeans.

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