mending monday: holes in jeans

i have a perpetual pile of clothes in need of mending.  i don't know if it's because i'm so hard on my clothes or because i hang on to them forever.

despite the excessive amount of time i spend trying to sew between diapers, feedings, and toddler meltdowns i never seem to get around to my mending pile.

mending jeans

said mending pile resides in my sewing room and now that i have a smaller sewing room and the pile is overflowing it's bin i see it's time to take action.  obviously i kind of hate mending, darning, and the like so i am making a pledge.  i will mend one item each week until the pile is gone (if that is, indeed, even possible) and because i love a good alliteration (awesome alliteration?) and need to stop being such a procrastinator (pernicious procrastinator? prodigious procrastinator??)  i'll try and get it done on mondays.

as such, for the inaugural mending monday i'll tackle something i hate doing but always need to do: mending holes in jeans (thighs not knees).  i bought these jeans in 2004 (which makes them 8 years old!) back when low rise/hip hugger flares were still in style.  <that sentence makes me feel so old>.  and they've already seen their share of mending.  the thighs have already been darned once, which extended their life by many wears already.  now the whole area around the darning is worn out, though, so it's time for some reinforcing.

i like to back the worn area with some stable knit fabric.  assuming the jeans have some elastane in them you don't want them stretching when the patch isn't or you'll likely end up ripping them.  i try and keep the color similar, but i use whatever i have on hand.

trim the fabric down to be just a bit bigger than the worn area.  a smaller seam allowance won't last as long but will be less visible so it really comes down to the size and area of the hole how big an sa you can get away with.

pin and zig zag around the edges of the patch, pivoting at the corners.

zig zag

you can see the stitching around the holes

while the next step isn't strictly necessary i believe it extends the life of the patch.  with the right side of the jeans up zig zag over the most worn area (in this case where there is undeniably a hole) zig zag back and forth pivoting to turn at the edges.  be careful not to get those loose strands caught in the foot.

 these jeans are terribly threadbare, and what else can you expect from 8 year old jeans that cost $5 at target on clearance.  really that's less than a dollar a year which is a steal if you think about it.  i'd probably throw them out but they're just so comfy.  that and they take me back.  you know, back in the day when this outfit would actually have been in style hah!

the stitching is actually pretty hard to see unless i stand funny like this:

 and why did i only have 4 pins to use on this?  every other pin i used was in this:

pinned piping; it's all sewn now

after an epic two day struggle i finally have piping.  i'm pretty much a piping noob but i want to use this piping with the fabric below for the luka hoodie from sewing for boys.  we'll see how it goes...