Last week, while operating at my laptop, I heard a muffled thud from the course of the steps, determined by means of a no longer-at-all muffled oath. I ran to peer if Brian had harm himself, however it have become out he became first-class; the oath changed into due to the fact he'd simply torn the knee of his favorite pair of denims. These had been a thrift-keep good deal (only 50 cents) and the number one pair of duration 32 jeans he'd ever owned. Brian became rather happy with them on each counts, so he become particularly disgruntled to have damaged them.
Fortunately, I'd handled rips like this in advance than, and I knew of a way to salvage the jeans. My stitching abilties, I should be conscious, are fairly rudimentary, and I'd tried a gaggle of various strategies for patching ripped denims in the beyond with restrained success. Iron-on patches had been pretty lots vain; besides searching manifestly dark and unnatural in competition to the specific fabric, they continually started out to peel off after certainly one or washings. I attempted ironing them on and then which includes a row of stitches round the brink to keep them in place, however the fabric of the patch may simply fray throughout the stitches and paintings itself free besides. I then tried reducing my non-public patches out of old jeans that have been consigned to the rag bag, however they usually appeared to come out lumpy and asymmetrical. It emerge as additionally very time-ingesting, for the reason that every patch needed to be sewed times?First hemmed all the manner round the threshold to prevent it from fraying, and then sewed in region on the jeans. (It likely might had been brief sufficient with a sewing system, however I'm even extra hopeless with a device than I am at stitching thru hand.)
Eventually, after an prolonged collection of trials and errors, it dawned on me that every pair of blue jeans has multiple quality, neat patches equipped-made: the two once more pockets. All you need to do is put off the pocket from the antique denims with a seam ripper...
...And then, if you've torn the authentic sewing at the pocket free inside the method, fast tack the edges backpedal with a row of unfastened stitches.
Then, position the pocket over the tear within the knee...
...And whip-stitch it into vicinity, as confirmed in this educational.
I endorse heeding the writer's advice approximately tacking the patch down with a few
But eventually, I got the patch seated properly, and the jeans are now...well, not exactly as good as new, but good enough to serve for another year or so. They just have a new, nonfunctional pocket stuck over the right knee—which, in this postmodern age, might just be taken as some sort of ironic statement.
Actually, it doesn't even have to be ironic. A crafting blogger who says she uses this same technique on her daughter's jeans notes that she likes to leave the tops of the pockets open—so they really are functional pockets. Admittedly, they're in a bit of an awkward place, since anything you put in them will poke you in the knee when you sit down, but for small items like keys or change, they might actually be easier to reach into than the back or side pockets.
Unfortunately, this technique won't work on my jeans (or other pants), which invariably wear out on the insides of the thighs—a much trickier spot to patch. I've seen a thread (ha ha) on a crafting message board that proposes a method for fixing these, but it involves cutting out and sewing in a very odd-shaped patch, and I fear it might be beyond my abilities. Maybe the method proposed on this general-interest blog would work better. Not exactly tidy, but probably a good deal more secure.
