Mended Jeans Even a Preteen Will Wear

Holey jeans are a given with four boys, but I'd like to get more than 2 weeks worth of wear from any given pair. Yes, even the $3 ones from the second hand store. When toddler child busts a hole it's usually because he's the 3rd child to wreck havok. When eldest child busts a hole I wonder what he's been doing crawling around on his knees. On the same note when toddler child busts a hole I can make a cute patch and he will happily sport a dino or star or whatever I come up with to extend the life of his britches. The odler boys, however, will not wear something as childish as traditionally patched knees. Nevermind they will run around with gaping holes. But I will only let them wear them for play clothes and this soon finds them with one pair of school pants and a half dozen play jeans.

I wish I could claim this idea as my own, but a friend suggested this meethod for a distressed look rather than a true patch and I can't find the link again, but it's a pretty simple concept. And if I'm cheap enough to think this is a great idea I'm sure someone else is in the same boat. So I started with a pile of jeans. I'll admit some were beyond saving, but I can use them for fabric later.

I made sure to press all my pieces first. Then I cut strips of heat n bond. One of those rolls of stitch witchery would've been great, but we make do with what we have, remember?

 

After using a few strips I let toddler child "help" by putting the backing in the trash with the denim scraps. I then had to dig out the unused pieces because he got carried away. 

I cut out some denim from the leg pieces we had left over from making this summer's cutoffs, making sure each piece was a couple inches bigger around than the hole I was patching. Then we ironed on our cut heat n bond strips.

Then we peel off the backing and iron our patch to the inside of our jeans, covering the hole. Once they cool we flip our jeans right side out. Holding our tongue just right we sewed an up and down zigzag covering the hole and the area around the hole. This really takes some fanagling because you don't want to sew through the leg of the jeans and catch the back. I roll up the cuffs to sort of help get them out of the way while sewing.

And tada:

Jeans that look distressed rather than patched. Heck, they almost look like they could've bought 'em this way. I'm more okay with them wearing these to school than with the state they were in before. And the boys don't mind a patching that looks like this. Jeans go on to  fight another day!

I did this for 5 more pairs of jeans this morning. Between steps we had to get toddler child a snack, change baby child's diaper, and do some prep work for dinner. If I could have some undivided attention for "crafting" I might have finished the whole pile. But we'll save the rest for another post.