How to Fix a Hole in Your Jeans

Last week, I clumsily fell + ripped a hole in my favorite pair of jeans. I’ve patched jeans before with iron on patches, which work great. For this hole + for my favorite jeans, I wanted a patch that was a little less noticeable.  

I started by ironing the tear. I ironed all of the threads towards the rip.

I then took a small embroidery hoop + stretched the area taught.

Here is a (very poor) illustration of the basic idea of what I did.  I started by stitching vertically across the whole tear. Then I horizontally, I weaved in + out of the vertical stitches.

I repeated this about three times, until I was satisfied with the strength of the patch.

It’s true, you can defiantly see the patch, but luckily this area is right under my knee + is less noticeable. I’ve since worn these jeans + even washed them + the patch held just fine.

How do you patch your jeans?

Comments

  1. Sarah@AlpinePoppy :
    That is a great skill to know. And you made it look easy enough that I might just try it. :)
  2. Brittanyisabird :
    This is so funny that you posted this today because just this morning, I ripped a massive hole in my jeans, and I was debating fixing them or just letting them go. I guess I know which option I'm choosing now :)
  3. Gabriela :
    This is how my mom taught me to darn socks when I was a little girl. Works great on socks and on jeans! Thanks for the reminder.
  4. Olivia Carter :
    Ooooo! Gotta try this- And I want to know what are your favorite pair of jeans?
  5. team cowan :
    My husband and I found a great how-to video from etsy on how to patch jeans. What we do is cut a patch from a scrap pair of jeans and pin it to the underside of the hole on the inside of the jeans. Then put it in the sewing machine with the patch on the underside and the outside of the jeans facing up and zig-zag back and forth with a matching thread color. It not only patches the hole but also reinforces it. In fact my husband often brings me pants that are worn thin and on the verge of ripping just for me to reinforce it and prevent it from ripping. You can see the how-to here: http://www.howcast.com/videos/9399-Fix-Ripped-Jeans-Etsy-Howto
    When you use the right colored thread you can hardly tell there's a patch there. Although I admit - I've patched a pair of my pants (a rather large area covering the entire knee) with gold metallic thread. I feel a bit like Michael Jackson whenever I wear them ;)
  6. Azúcar :
    A week after buying the perfect pair of jeans for me, I tripped and ripped a hole in the knee on a cement stair.

    I used this exact technique--except after it was done I used a few drops of Fray Check. It's a little bottle of liquid that stops fabric from fraying, especially great for ribbons, but it also reinforces patches like these! The patch job held for the life of the jeans. Yay!
  7. jill v. / TerraSavvy :
    This comes at a perfect time! I have the same issue with a favorite (and expensive) pair that I had no idea what to do with.

    Now , thanks to you, I can get to patching!

    You're so smart!!! LOL No really...you are!

    xo
    Jill
  8. Flora :
    Thanks for the instructions!....Looks good.
  9. ellen :
    I don't patch them. I pretend ripped jeans are cool. :)
  10. moxiemandie :
    genius! love it!
  11. love, Syd :
    being able to patch jeans is a VERY important skill. one i will teach my daughters someday.
    in high school i had the *perfect* pair of jeans, but i wore them so often they had a million holes in them by the end of summer. i patched them with bright pink fabric and embroidery floss. it took for.ev.er. to get all the holes and worn out spots up to par - but once they were done i wore them all the way through senior year! i only wish i'd saved them after the freshman 15 hit me in college. i'd probably still be wearing them!
  12. Lori :
    OH WOW! Thank you! My all time favorite jeans ripped at the knee today. I guess they had just had enough. I'm going to try this so I can wear them until something more critical gives out (i.e. the butt).
  13. dalene :
    Very cool. Because I don't like doing things I'm not great at, I never get around to the mending, so when my 18yo son got tired of missing his favorite pair of jeans he took it to a friend. Instead of trying to camouflage the rip, he embraces it--backing it with a bright colorful fabric and stitching it with bright colored thread. Of course that's not something I want to do with my own jeans, but it can be fun for kids and teens alike.
  14. Athena :
    The thing that I find the most amusing about this fix it job is that I have bought my daughter brand new pants that have this technique done all over them, they don't have holes but the look of the slightly fixed look. The only difference that I noticed the manufacturer does is that they reinforce the back with interfacing. Now I don't have to buy her new jeans with this look I can just fix up her old ones and perhaps add more holes. Just a quick question do you use regular thread or was it embroider thread? Or heavy duty?
  15. Floor :
    I'm incredibly lazy, so i iron a piece of vliesofix (the dutch name, doublesided fusible interfacing in english?) to a piece of canvas, cut it a bit bigger than the rip, and iron to the inside of the pants. 5min max.
  16. Injoytroye :
    This is EXACTLY what designer denim store do when they repair a $200 pair of jeans!!! Way to go! And the other commenter is right. I have paid over $100 for a pair of jeans that have these exact "repairs" in them!!!!
  17. Rach H :
    I'm glad I found this post, my neighbor dropped off a pair of jeans he wants patched, and i've been putting it off because I have no idea how! Thank you!!!
  18. UK lass in US :
    I did pretty much the same thing a week ago, although I didn't use an embroidery hoop. I just went back and forth every which way using the sewing machine and off-white thread, which surprisingly blends in well (well, the jeans already had a bit of sun bleaching anyway).

    I'm still traumatised that my favourite pair of jeans seems to be on the verge of falling apart when there is nothing in the stores to replace them. I'm wearing bell-bottoms right now, as that was the best I could find. I'm feeling far too self-conscious in them, though.
  19. Cara :
    Thanks for posting this, I wouldn't have thought to use an embroidery hoop!
  20. Tif :
    Thank you so much for posting this. My 7 year old son wears out the knees in his jeans days after I buy them, and now I am going to handle that problem!! Gotta buy me a hoop!!! I've gotta link this great post to my blog!! My friends have to see this!
    http://throughmylensetlh.blogspot.com
  21. Nomadic D. :
    Are you kidding me?! You DARNED your jeans?! I am madly impressed. And yes, mildly tempted to do it myself too. When I get holes in my jeans I either embrace them or throw the jeans away, depending on placement of said hole. This kind of blew my mind! Love your blog!

    http://nomadic-d.blogspot.com/
  22. William Turner :
    I don't like this type of style, your post is very nice...


    thanks to share
    William Turner
    Leather Pants
  23. Trina :
    Brilliant! Thank you so very much for posting this. I was beginning to loose hope after searching for a week and only finding the typical iron-on-patch tutorials. I KNEW there had to be a better solution! Going to try it right now. Your pictures are perfect, too. Thank you!!!
    • Susan :
      yeah! so glad that it helped.

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