“Not your Grandmas Knee Patches” Tutorial

Is it just me or are the jeans these days made with thin, easily wore out denims?  Do the denim manufacturers secretly wear down the knees of jeans or are my kids just especially hard on them??  We dont have a pair of jeans that have outlasted a season without holes somewhere.  While I wouldnt mind an alternative, my husbands suggestion of buying them “TOUGHSKINS” that could stand in the corner by themselves they are so stiff- just didnt sound all that comfortable!

So I finally dove in and decided to do some “Designer Patching” of the knees.  My creative juices were flowing on this while I was piecing together the “Sew n’ Flip” quilt blocks I blogged about last week!

I always like to do a few new tutorials a year and man I havent done one in ages, so here ya go!! 

Grab:

• pair of holey jeans
• fusible fleece *or other usable material suitable for sewing the scraps on that isnt stretchy and is soft on the back*
• bias trim
• seam ripper
• Some scraps

Here are my daughters jeans BEFORE:

FIrst you will need to rough cut your pieces of fusible fleece and scraps to cover your hole.  I cant give you measurements as it will vary for each hole, but I cut my pieces to have a 1.5″ seam allowance at top/bottom and 2″ or so on each side.   Then gather enough scraps to cover each piece of fleece.  I choose to make the patches on both knees pretty much identical but it isnt necessary.  In fact you could just use one single print as well 🙂

 

Then start with the fusible side UP put on piece of scrap in the middle of your fusible fleece at any angle you want them lay another scrap down with right sides together.  sew along the edges of the 2 pieces then FLIP the piece that is right side down over and topstitch the seam.

Repeat until fleece piece is covered making sure your pieces are flat.  Then iron and remove the excess edges.

Attach bias trim to the long top and bottom edges.

Then, let the seam ripping begin.   You want to open the leg of the jean along the seam that is NOT topstitched on the outside.  For this pair it was the outer leg seam and I believe that is industry standard but not sure.  I only seamripped enough (about a foot) to get the knee area to lay flat.  This is so you can get it under the machine easier 😉  This pic is just the outside showing which seam to rip..  I found if you tugged at the seam on both sides the seam ripper went right down the middle pretty fast!  There will be a regular stitched seam and a “serged” edge as well.

Ok, once the seam is open you want to fold under one raw edge of your patch and place just over the other seam of your pants that you didnt rip.  Make sure the patch is centered.  You might want to pin it in place even.  You will sew on the other side of this seam first.

Then  Sew down the top edges of each of the bias trim strips.

Leave the raw edges of the other side of the patch to be stitched into the side seam.   Finish both sides and turn your pants wrong side out.  Match the seams up as they were before so the dark seam allowance doesnt show on the outside seam.   Then sew down this seam to close it up.   I sewed it TWICE making sure to secure the raw edges of the patch in the seam.    Then serge or zig zag the raw edges.

Back side will look like this when done:

Turn the pants right side out and VIOLA!!

I patched these jeans with the intentions of them being her play jeans but alas I was informed they are her new favorite pair and she hopes that some others get holey so I can patch them too, lol.  Enjoy!

Tags: holey jeans, How to, jeans, knee, knee patches, patch, scraps, sew, sewing, tutorial