A Cute Way to Patch Jeans

It’s about that time of year… you know, when all your kid’s school jeans start wearing through at the knee. What do they do at school that makes their clothes come home so destroyed?! Honestly!

I’ve tried several different patching methods and this is the one I think turned out the cutest.

Materials Needed

• Jeans with holes in the knees. If you have kids, you should have plenty of these hanging around.
• Extra fabric. I used denim from an old pair of pants I found in my “turn-these-into-a-denim-quilt-someday” pile.
• Fabric glue. I used Alene’s because that’s what I had on hand.
• Thread. Choose something that coordinates or a bright fun color. It’s up to you!

Instructions

Step 1: Trace a pattern onto the denim over the hole you want to patch.

Step 2: Cut out a square/rectangle of the extra fabric. Make sure the extra piece of fabric completely covers up the design you’d like to cut with plenty of overlap.

Step 3: Use the fabric glue around the edges of the rectangle to secure it to the inside of the pants. Make sure it lines up and completely covers the design you’ve traced. Don’t put glue in the middle of the rectangle because that part of the fabric will show on the front when you’re done.

Step 4: When the glue is dry, stitch through both thicknesses of fabric around the design you drew, leaving about 1/4 distance between your stitches and the line.

Step 5: This is a crucial step. CAREFULLY cut out along the line you drew, ONLY cutting through the top layer (the original pant fabric). DO NOT cut through both layers of fabric or you will defeat the whole purpose of this project and will end up with holes in the knees. Make sense?

The jeans pictured haven’t been washed yet, but when they do, the denim around the heart design will fray and look even cuter.

Now hopefully you’ll have a pair of pants that will last until June!