Hello everybody,
Does anybody patch blue jeans? I was wondering i fyou have any suggestions on the best way to patch them. I have searched the internet but have found several ways. I'l just like to hear suggestions from people who has actually done it.
thank you,
Judy

I try. I have the iron on patches that I try to use on the wrong side and machine stitch around the edges--sometimes it works--most times, not. I probably shouldn't put the jeans in the dryer but we can't hang clothes on a clotheline in the city, and they take too long to dry otherwise.

If they are worth patching the best way is to use patches made from recycled jeans. Then you pin it in place on inside and hand stitch if the machine can't get to it :D

The other day one of my favorite pairs of Jeans got a hole in them and I didn't really want to patch them with other Jean material. I had this cute cream and pink material with vines and leaves on it, so I used that. So to make them look more like I mean to have the patches there, I cut out one knee and put a piece of the material there and a little place on the thigh of the other leg and put a piece there. Then I hand tacked them on and machine stitched around them. Then, after I had washed them, I took the stitches where I had hand stitched them off, b/c they seemed to be more visible. After I had washed them, the jeans frayed around the patch and they turned out really cute. Don't know if your interested in that way, but I thought I'd share what I had done.

Depending on where the hole is, I may top off with a different fabric, fold the edges down, and use decorative stitches well away from hole to anchor it down.

Oh, oh! Choose ME!!! I have raised three sons and a husband, and I am TOTALLY the expert on mending jeans. I even do it for all the men in our church!

The easiest way to mend jeans is to open up the inside seam. That's usually the one that is not flat-felled. Then you take denim from other old jeans and cut a patch. If it matches well and the hole is big, I fold in the outside edges and position it on top of the jeans. Put a couple pins in it to hold it in place and stitch around the outside (folded) edges. Then stitch vertical and horizontal rows across it, like quilting a grid! Trim away any loose threads and frayed edges on the jeans. If it is a small hole, I usually put the new denim inside the jeans. Stitch heavily, like darning.

Gray thread usually works best, unless the jeans are very dark.

Then stitch up the leg again. :-)

I've patched hundreds of jeans. With FIVE sons, I have practically re-made several pairs. "But mom, they are my favorites!" I use a piece of discarded jean, put it underneath the hole, take off the big wide surface of the machine to use the narrow base that will fit up the legs, then do a wavey line thing to attach it.

Here's a good story. One of my stepsons left his laundry in the washer, so I dried it, and was folding it when I noticed a huge hold on the front, near the base of the pocket. So being the mender that I am, I promptly mend the hole. As I'm folding the jeans, my other son comes into the laundry room and laughs! He said that my stepson had just bought them. He bought them that way. So replied "No one is allowed to show their underware through a hole in their jeans in OUR house!". It's been a year now, and my step son has never mentioned the mending job. And he continues to wear these jeans. Sara

it drives me nuts see people with holey jeans, and to think that they paid more money for them than you could have gotten a "good" pair for! When I was a kid it was embarrassing to have to wear torn clothes or your big brother's, that you couldn't keep up! I won't get on the soapbox but I hate that too!

I had a pair back in the 70s that were patched with doilies across the butt, velvet and other stuff on kness and where required. Embroidery everywhere! I loved my "keep on truckin' jeans".

sometimes i have used old blue jeans to take pieces from. i have also made paper pieced blocks to patch with. cute p.p. heart on my grandson's leg. he loves it. (he is 16)

my son is a theater lighting engineer. when he was younger he was very proud of his patched jeans. at one time he had a pair that was so repaired that the only original part was one pocket and the fly-front. LOL!

when he moved out after college, he took them with him. he's forty-one and still has them. doesn't wear them because they don't fit anymore. but won't give them up. like anyone wants them :roll:

EDIT: the front pockets were so worn at the edges i had zigzagged over the edge to keep them from getting worse.

and the comment about child abuse is right on target.

Amen, to HAVING to wear holey clothing! The times they are a changing! :lol:

I still repair jeans.

We also grew up in a time when anything NEW (and looked new) was cherished.

If I'm repairing an area from below the front pocket to below the knee, I will use the backs of the legs of a discarded pair of jeans and cut a great big rectangle large enough to cover the area.

I've found that if I use the multi-step zig-zag stitch that I don't need to turn the raw edges in. I put the patch on the outside of the jeans. I will tack down the loose edges of a worn out knee. Hate to get the foot caught in that spot.

I do have an open arm machine, so that makes it a little easier. Sometimes I can do two sides of the patch from one end of the jeans. Then I take them off the sewing table and turn them around and do the other two sides. Access issue.

Clear as mud?