Tony had a hole in his jeans and of course I said I could (try to) mend it. It wasn’t difficult but it was a bit fiddly because the hole is in an awkward spot, right by the seams. If you have ever tried to sew through the multiple layers in a seam in a pair of jeans you know that sewing machines don’t particularly like that!
I pinned a small scrap from an old pair of jeans over the hole, with a generous margin all around. I am really glad that I have a darning mushroom to stretch out the fabric of the jeans. Otherwise there might have been some puckers under the patch and that might have been uncomfortable when wearing the jeans.
And then I remembered that I have this spool of jeans coloured variegated thread. Very handy. If that is something you need in your stash, it is Gütermann Jeans Thread 100m Col No.5154.
It’s not exactly the same colour as Tony’s jeans but the fact that it is variegated will help it blend in more.
I basted the patch in place because I could see that wrangling this spot on the sewing machine would be awkward enough in itself. Leaving in the pins was just begging for them to stab my hands. Not keen on that! :-)
The finished mend. The patch is quite large compared to the hole, but the area around the hole felt like it was wearing thin so I thought some reinforcement was in order. I added an extra smaller patch on top of where the hole is, just to make it extra strong.
Stitching the patch was exactly as awkward as I had anticipated, but with lots of criss-cross stitching the mend should last a good while.
This is perhaps not the most exciting post… On other hand, there is something to be said for sharing projects that are more about problem solving than about pretty colours and patterns. I think it is quite satisfying that those jeans can now be used for a while longer and not just go in the bin.
Not that I would allow them just be thrown away! I keep old jeans to use in various projects. If nothing else, they become patches or rags for all kinds of things.
