Confessions of a Theta Mom: January 2013

Don't send your child's, or your, hole-riffic pants to the trash! There is a way to still get mileage out of them, and not make them look like you ironed on those ugly patches. I was searching for a solution because with boys in this house, those pants get holey fast. I was desperate to find a better looking solution. So..thank goodness for the new trend. "Distressed pants". and recently found painted pants ( which I have seen sell online from 25.00 to 95.00 for custom paint jobs) This is how I fixed the "hole" problem. It does take some time, but with me time is money, and I am saving a ton in NOT buying new pants until they out grow them.
All of my examples are at the end of this post.

What you will need:

Pants with holes in the knees
scrap pants ( the ones where the holes are way to big to repair) or scrap fabric
Iron on patches
scissors
needle and matching thread
embroidery hoop (optional)
fabric paint (optional)
small craft paint brushes (optional)

As you may have read before, I am not a great at sewing and have little patience. With 4 kids in this house, I need to get things done as quick and easy as possible. My awesome neighbor gave me a bag of her 4t boys pants with holes, her kiddo had out grown for me to use as "play jeans" for Boo Bear. The holes were there, but not super bad, like ripped from one side to the next. So I started looking at ways to repair the hole. Of course easily, inexpensively, and not make it look like I slapped a iron on jean patch to fix the hole. So my solution. Patch from the inside of the pants, hand sew to secure the patch and paint creatively.
Kids Jeans instructions and distressed instructions are below.

I did 2 different types. Jeans to look distressed and painted jeans with the inside out patch covering up the hole.

Do this for all variations of jeans.
1.Turn Jeans inside out.

2. Cut a piece out from your spare pair of junk jeans to cover the hole of the jean with about an 1/8
inch allowance on all sides..making sure the spare jeans patch will overlap the hole

3. Place that spare jean part on your iron on patch and cut around the spare jean patch with a 1 inch allowance around the sides.
side note* - you can iron the area you are fixing on the jeans to warm up the area so the patch will adhere better.

4. Place spare jean patch face down to cover hole in jeans entirely

5. Place iron on patch shiny side down ( to adhere the patch to the jeans)
6, With iron on HIGH heat, move the iron back and forth constantly until patch is secured. Let cool.

7. Turn pants right side out. With a needle and thread, hand sew around the outside hole to secure the patch further. ( some patches the edges will peel off no matter how much you have ironed them)

If you like the distressed look, stop here. I did this for my jeans, since they were distressed when I bought them, but the distressed part on my knee tore open. now it looks like the hole was always that size. Since I patched them using the above steps.

What this really is is patching your jeans from the inside instead of the outside. The "spare jean" part keeps the stickiness of the iron on patch from sticking to your ironing table, and also makes the finished product look better, and for kids jeans the next part, gives you a flat canvas to paint on.

Now for Kids Jeans

Follow Steps 1-7
8. Clean up ragged edges by cutting off scraps of string.
9. With creativity, you can use iron on transfers, to stencils, to bejeweled kits, buttons, etc.
10. Come up with designs you will like that will cover up the holes and hide them better.
11. Decorate as you please.

I hope this was informative for you and will help you save those jeans , and get a little more use out of them.

Before