How to patch holes in jeans

For the first four years of her life, Adelaida could be described as cautious, gentle, and calm. Her clothes looked as good when she outgrew them as they did when she first got them. Then she turned four and suddenly she was rough on her clothes! During two weeks in January, Adelaida wore holes in the knees of two pairs of jeans. Both pairs of jeans were hand-me-downs, and if we didn't have two more little girls who could wear them in about a year, we'd probably throw them out. But we do have two little girls who will need Adelaida's hand-me-downs, so I decided to attempt to mend them.

Please remember that I am not particularly artsy or craftsy, so this was quite a big project for me!

The first pair of jeans has heart-shaped pockets. I wanted to add another denim heart to cover the hole in the knee. I found some iron-on denim patches, but was warned that the iron-on backing often peels off.


I first cut out a heart-shaped patch and ironed it the over the hole (the blue color is from the wash-away marker I used to trace the heart).


To complete the look and keep the iron-on patch from falling off, I sewed around the heart with heavy yellow thread (like the heart-shaped pockets). It didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped, but not bad!


The second pair of jeans has pink stitching around the waist and embroidered pink hearts on the back pocket.

 

I cut a round-cornered rectangle of iron-on denim and ironed it over the hole in the knee.


Next, I stitched around the rectangle with pink thread.


Finally, I stitched two pink hearts over the patch.


The final product looks pretty good, much better than the first pair!