Mending Your Favorite Jeans

So, you know that pair of jeans in your closet that you just LOVE?

Yes, those.

The ones you wash inside out and take out of the dryer to finish drying on a hanger...

The ones that can make you look into the mirror and delusionally see this:

Ahh, yes -we all have our moments...

So, you know the jeans I am talking about.

And for as many of us women as there are out there, there are -or should be the perfect pair of jeans.

And when you find that pair of jeans, how many of us are tempted to buy multiple pairs?

Because you know that somewhere down the line, they will discontinue that style.

Inevitably for a style the young teen set are sporting...

So, which style is that for you?

I love to know what you all like best!

My {current} favorite is Suki Flare by Silver Jeans with an extra long inseam om 36 - 37 inches.

(yes, I have long legs)

My bestie, Hollie, had a pair of these on and rather than giving her a bestie-bottom-pinch and making her hubby pass out with that sight, I decided to replace my then current failing pair of jeans... Even if I wouldn't look near as cute as Miss Hollie, they would absolutely be better then the pair that had gone through pregnancy with me....

You may have seen me in them here:

Yea, these jeans put my back-side as close to looking as cute as this little peach-bottom:

Now, Hollie and I have worn both of our pairs into submission.

And upon a visit she said to me,

"We might need to have a funeral and a national day of mourning for my jeans!"

A little alarmed I asked,

 "Ummm, why? If mine can come back from the mishap of the first wearing, I can't imagine you have ruined yours!!"

Then she showed me the inconvenient spot that had given way on her jeans:

I grabbed them and said, "Oh don't be silly! That is fixable!" And I grabbed them from her.

And would you know it, as long after I purchased mine from hers, mine did the same thing not 4 inches away!

What is a girl to do when her favorite pair of denim calls Uncle!

There had been a time when I scoured ebay for extra long Silvers (other styles) without much success.

But now, I fix them! And you know what?

They are better than new!

And I thought I would share my method with all of you!

Are you ready for the fix?

You will need:

Your jeans

One to as many as five thread colors that match or coordinate your denim and its stitching.

HeatnBond UltraHold

Swatch of woven fabric (if you can match the fiber content of your jeans for even better results)

Ok -here we go!

Turn your jeans inside out.

Locate the area of your worn area

Locate your swatch of fabric. I use a fabric that will give me a little smile when I see the inside.

For Hollie's pair I used this cheery orange woven.

Now grab your HeatnBond

With the HeatnBond, you will need to cut a piece that is at least 1 inch bigger on each side to your worn area.

Take your HeatnBond and place it onto the woven piece and iron it following the package directions

Once it cools, cut any excess fabric away and peel the release paper away from you fabric

Place your fabric with HeatnBond side down onto your jeans and press it into place

Make sure you get all the edges ironed down.  At this point, all of your worn threads are adhered to the HeatnBond and if you absolutely had NO more time and had to wear them at this point, they would be fine for a pretty good while. 

But, I wouldn't want to be back here again with the same jeans, so I would continue to the sewing machine.

On my machine I use the free-motion feature.  It isn't necessary, but it sure makes the job tons easier.

If you can do this on your machine, don't forget to drop your feed dogs...

 And take off your walking foot and use the correct presser foot.

A word of caution here: Be Very careful of the tension you create with your hands through the machine.  It is easy to create ripples that will sit funny when worn.

Now, with this pair of jeans, I really only needed one shade of thread.  BUT, if you want an invisible look, you would start with one color and make a zillion stitches in the same direction of the denim weave.  Then you would add another color and another until the look was seamless.

Tip: The smaller the stitch, the more invisible, and I would also NOT use a giant jeans size 90 needle.

An all purpose needle will work well for this.

As you can see, these pockets have some very decorative stitches on them.  If you wanted to REALLY camouflage your patch, you could "extend" the pocket stitch detail on BOTH sides of each pocket into your patch (over your denim stitches).  This would make them look like they were meant to be there if you can't get a even patch-stitch.

And voila! An even more sturdy pair of jeans than you purchased from the store!



If something isn't clear in this tutorial, feel free to email me any questions!

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