I have already blogged several times about patching jeans, here, here, here and here but I make no apologies for blogging about it yet again.
It would seem, that patching has become to define my new way of life…
Anyway, this time, there was a pair of jeans each from hubby, BigSmall and me.
I saw this great how-to on The Good Wardrobe (if you haven’t checked out The Good Wardrobe, go, NOW! It’s fabulous.) and decided to give it a go.
It was all going well, until the part where it said “Turn the trousers right side out and, focusing on the area directly around the hole, stitch in lines across the hole (diagonal to the weave and about 2mm apart) until the entire hole has been covered in lines of stitching”
This is the bit I struggle with.
Am I missing some magical easy peasy way of sewing through one layer of a leg of a pair of jeans without sewing the leg shut? AND making it look neat?
This is what the Zoe’s wonderful repair looked like.
You have to look very closely to even notice it, that is how good it is.
And these are my attempts.
1) For hubby’s, I did try to go for an invisible mend, and failed
2) BigSmalls-I went visible. And then wished I hadn’t, when he announced “I don’t like the green”. Oh. Ermmmm.
3) And because I am lazy and didn’t want to change the thread, I went green on mine for an “out and proud, yes I’ve patched my jeans, don’t you think they look cool?” kind of statement…
So what is the secret to neat patching?
I NEED to know 🙂
My Make Do and Mend Year 
Jen, I applaud your efforts but that’s not patching that’s darning! Invisible darning is very difficult especially on jeans because the colours vary. I think hubby’s darn is probably the best you can do where the material isn’t all one colour. Keep trying though,you know what they say about practice!
There are patches of denim on the back-does that make it patching? Or darning? Or datching?!
Oh I think we should go for the new word Datching!! Perhaps you didn’t need to make the darn so big if there’s a patch at the back. I usually go for a patch that’s no more than about 3/8″ bigger all round the hole. (Usually to where the original material is still solid) Then sew very careful aligned rows of darn. If the hole is largish I don’t sew across the patch fabric just on to it to keep all the edges from being loose.
Great, thanks Hilary 🙂
I’m planning a case of sewing a patch over the affected area of my jeans, although your method looks good. 🙂 I may give them both a go, when I get round to fixing them. (It’s always the same darn place) I am considering turning them into shorts, hence the spare material to fix the rest of the jeans, this would of course require you to have sameish coloured jeans. But it looks good in your pictures. 🙂 Only thing I could suggest is dying the entire jeans if you want the colour to be the same, but thats a lot of effort when you think they look pretty good anyway.
For my next patch, on my other jeans, which are about to go, I am planning a patch on the front in patterned fabric. I wanted to do some lace, but I thought it would just end up getting wrecked and grubby!
Once bigSmall has worn them a couple of times you won’t notice the patch as don’t ALL little boys have green grass stains on their knee??
Jeans patching/darning is next on my list as I have about 3/4 pairs that need doing,
Yes, you are right about the grass stains 🙂 Let me know how you get on Nicola!
I’m definitely in the ‘out and proud’ camp – it’s visible mending here – always!
Hurray for visible mending. And so on trend too 😉
A much wiser woman than me actually rips the side seam on the leg, sets the patch, then resews the seam. I gave myself a forehead slap when she told me…
OMG-headslap moment indeed! Thankyou 🙂
Sadly to patch them the way it seems you wanted you’d have to use denim colored iron-on patches from the inside. They do a great job if you use them as soon as the fabric wears very thin but before there’s a big tear.
I never have any faith that the iron on patches will survive the wash-have you had much experience using them?
I have patched my jeans and my young son’s by putting shapes of denim on the hole. My sewing skills are such that I’d rather do something obvious, not trust I can be subtle. 🙂
I love a bit of visible mending. Out and proud, that’s what I say!
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