I will patch DH's work jeans but I use my one of my vintage machines and a size 16 needle. The vintage machine will do some of those strange places that get holey and sew like a hot knife through butter to boot. When hubby needs fixing around the belt loops, I unstitch the loop, repair the hole and then restitch the loop with creativity ~ it is always unique looking when I'm finished. My newer machine (new 25 years ago) couldn't handle patching the jeans - too much material under the presser foot at one time.
Chris