Patching Pants

Eric is really good at repairing his jeans. I remember a trip to Joshua Tree when our oldest son was barely two. In the quiet of the desert, Eric started repairing a pair of his jeans by hand stitching homemade denim patches over the holes. Those patches are still going strong and many more have been added.


I decided to take a lesson by repairing a pair of my oldest son's pants. We cut denim from a recycled pair of jeans and pinned the patches to cover the holes.


Eric usually uses the sewing machine these days instead of hand stitching. He added another patch to some of his jeans.

Interior of Eric's pant leg with the tear sewn down.

Then he turned them inside out and ran a stitch around the tear. The sewn down material is less likely to be caught when you push your feet through the pant legs.

Interior of my son's pant leg with the tear removed.

I sewed the patch on my son's jeans with a tight zigzag stitch. I turned them inside out. Instead of sewing down the material surrounding the tear, I cut out all the material inside the border of the patch. I figured a tear would grow bigger by curious toes, best to remove it altogether.


Ready to wear.