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Canning Day Quilt

Wear it out…

World War II Poster  I guess ripping the rear end of your jeans isn’t a new thing. What’s new is throwing those ripped jeans in the trash can.  My grandmother would cringe if she knew some of the things I used to throw away.

But these days, I am learning to “Make it Do” and that means learning to mend.

Mending is not only good for your pocket book, it’s also good for the environment.

Here’s a few tips on how to mend jeans:

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Just like in to picture above, my husband ripped his jeans right along the back pocket.

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I bought a few patches at Walmart. (They come in several different colors.)

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I trimmed off all the frayed edges.

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I cut a patch to fit over the rip, carefully lined up the torn edges and ironed the patch into place.

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Use a color of thread that closely matches the color of your garment.  Zigzag over the seam to secure it into place.  (Otherwise the patch will eventually fall off.)

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These pants look pretty darn good.  I don’t think he will be wearing them out on the town any more… but he will definitely be wearing them to work in the yard or camping or even when he goes out shooting trap with his buddies.

This is just a basic mending job… but what about getting creative?  You can turn pants with torn knees into shorts, or make them stylish by patching them with a wonderful fabric.  Take a look back at my post about turning a plain tee shirt into something fancy… that same technique can be used to hide a patch or even a stain.  It’s very satisfying to rescue something that was on it’s way to the garbage.  And I bet my grandma would be proud of me.

Use it up, Wear it out, Make it Do, or Do without.

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6 Responses to “Wear it out…”

  • That is ALWAYS the first place my jeans wear out too. I can’t believe I never tried mending them myself! Now I’m kicking myself over a treasured pair of jeans I tossed last month. I was going to keep the denim for a project but I’m trying to destash my craft room. Darn it! Oh well, lesson learned. I’ll totally give this a try next time and I’ll be linking as well, thanks!

  • sarah:

    oh for heaven’s sake. why didn’t i think of that? thank you! i have a pair of jeans that i ripped in two spots – the belt loops on the back of my hips. i’ve been wearing extra long shirts and sweaters just to hide it after my attempt to stitch the rips shut failed. thanks so much!

  • agreenfire:

    I had two pair of pants rip at the pockets, which I mended, then the butts completely split. I was so annoyed. I patched one pair, the other was to badly gone-but I save them for future projects.

    Thanks for the great instructions on how to patch jeans. I also have two denim shirts that I patched. Anyone else would have tossed them by now, but I love them to much to let them go. Bravo for making clothes last and keeping otherwise perfectly good jeans out of the landfill.

  • I am so glad that I found your blog, I am going to use this trick– with some stabilizer (iron on) since I already have it– hope it works!!!

  • I need to email this to my daughters so they don’t “mom help” me with their little tears here and there. Oh well. I am good for semething I guess. I’m seeing that shark iron everywhere. It must be good.

  • […] have been thinking of writing a series of posts on mending for a while.  Last year, I wrote about how to mend jeans with a rip in the rear… that really rolls of the tongue…. which was practical, but not at all […]

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