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Posted by seanspotatobusiness on October 7, 2007, 6:52 am
My jeans tore at the knee and the tear has been getting wider. I
repaired them with a piece of string:
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7849/picture021ca3.jpg
but as you can see, this has caused the formation of two new holes
(circled in green); it's getting worse! I basically just punched the
holes in with a pencil and pulled the string through with a paperclip.
I put the new holes down to a lack of reinforcement and my new idea is
that inserting eyelets (you can get an eyelet device cheaply on ebay)
will give the reinforcement needed to make it work. Is this doomed to
fail too?
Some jeans are bought with tears in - what stops these tears from just
getting bigger and bigger?
Previous sewing experience: I made a pair of awful (awful) shorts at
school which were promptly thrown away.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Posted by enigma on October 7, 2007, 8:51 am
wrote in
> My jeans tore at the knee and the tear has been getting
> wider. I repaired them with a piece of string:
> http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7849/picture021ca3.jpg
> but as you can see, this has caused the formation of two
> new holes (circled in green); it's getting worse! I
> basically just punched the holes in with a pencil and
> pulled the string through with a paperclip. I put the new
> holes down to a lack of reinforcement and my new idea is
> that inserting eyelets (you can get an eyelet device
> cheaply on ebay) will give the reinforcement needed to make
> it work. Is this doomed to fail too?
<snicker? bonus points for ingenuity anyway.
yes, just setting grommets for the string would also fail,
for a couple reasons. first, the fabric is thin enough to tear
at the knee, which means it's too thin to hold the eyelets
without tearing/popping. second, lacing isn't the best method
of fixing a hole in clothing. you need a patch.
> Some jeans are bought with tears in - what stops these
> tears from just getting bigger and bigger?
holes as a "design feature" are reinforced by either
stitching around the area to keep the hole from expanding or
sometimes interfaced underneith with an iron on patch, also to
keep the hole from spreading.
spending lots of money on purposely damaged clothes is pretty
stupid. as you have learned, you can do it yourself, and
*those* type of holes/tears are a lot more genuine.
> Previous sewing experience: I made a pair of awful (awful)
> shorts at school which were promptly thrown away.
with a machine or by hand? were you taught how to fit shorts?
i'd guess not, which is why they were awful...
it's possible to sew a knee patch on by machine, but i prefer
hand sewing (i do machine sew patches going on the butt
though). if you have spare denim, you can cut a patch from
that big enough to cover the tear *and* the weakened fabric
around it. if you just cover the tear, a patch will rip around
the edges too. if you don't have denim, any decent weight
fabric will do. i've used everything from quilting cottons to
fake fur...
i make my patches twice as long as i need & fold in half (so
there's 2 more layers over the hole). fold the edges under as
you sew (or sew right sides together almost all the way
around, turn right side out & sew onto the knee) so you don't
get fraying of the patch.
or you can try iron-on patches, but i don't like them. too
stiff & they fall off if you don't follow the directions
exactly.
my favorite pair of jeans in college was a pair i bought used
& i patched & patched & patched... but once the patches needed
patches, i quit. there's resourceful & there's wasting your
time. once the patches start wearing out, it's time to bid
them farewell.
lee
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Posted by Melinda Meahan - take out TRAS on October 7, 2007, 12:30 pm
enigma wrote:
> my favorite pair of jeans in college was a pair i bought used
> & i patched & patched & patched... but once the patches needed
> patches, i quit. there's resourceful & there's wasting your
> time. once the patches start wearing out, it's time to bid
> them farewell.
I had a pair of slacks when I was in college that I had made from fabric
that had a print of fringed patches on it. It was a lightweight fabric,
and when it started to get a few holes, I started putting patches on
them. Then I got the funny idea of sewing patches of fabric over the
printed patches just for fun, and so on from there. I ended up
crazy-quilting them into a nice piece of wearable art, including pockets
that were not on the original pants, a zipper placed just nicely so that
it served as a pencil holder in orchestra so I didn't have to keep a
pencil on the music stand, etc. It was really fun. But these were
loose-fitting pants, not jeans. I don't think it would have worked with
jeans.
--
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your
work with excellence.
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Posted by Liz on October 8, 2007, 2:36 pm
> enigma wrote:
>
>> my favorite pair of jeans in college was a pair i bought used & i
>> patched & patched & patched... but once the patches needed patches, i
>> quit. there's resourceful & there's wasting your time. once the patches
>> start wearing out, it's time to bid them farewell.
>
> I had a pair of slacks when I was in college that I had made from fabric
> that had a print of fringed patches on it. It was a lightweight fabric,
> and when it started to get a few holes, I started putting patches on them.
> Then I got the funny idea of sewing patches of fabric over the printed
> patches just for fun, and so on from there. I ended up crazy-quilting
> them into a nice piece of wearable art, including pockets that were not on
> the original pants, a zipper placed just nicely so that it served as a
> pencil holder in orchestra so I didn't have to keep a pencil on the music
> stand, etc. It was really fun. But these were loose-fitting pants, not
> jeans. I don't think it would have worked with jeans.
You reminded me of my "butterfly jeans" that I wore in the 70s. I was very
much into embroidery at that time so when my favorite pair of jeans
developed a hole in one knee and a wear spot on the butt, I got out my
embroidery hoops and embroidered a colorful butterfly at each area. Well, I
couldn't stop there so I added a few other butterflies to kind of even
things out. I got so many compliments on those jeans which I wore for
another five years or so. When they started to shrink <G> and got too small
for me, I made a huge mistake in putting them in the Salvation Army donation
pile. I guess I just never realized that my two little girls would ever be
bit enough to fit into them!!
Liz
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Posted by Melinda Meahan - take out TRAS on October 7, 2007, 12:22 pm
seanspotatobusiness wrote:
> My jeans tore at the knee and the tear has been getting wider. I
> repaired them with a piece of string:
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7849/picture021ca3.jpg
> but as you can see, this has caused the formation of two new holes
> (circled in green); it's getting worse! I basically just punched the
> holes in with a pencil and pulled the string through with a paperclip.
> I put the new holes down to a lack of reinforcement and my new idea is
> that inserting eyelets (you can get an eyelet device cheaply on ebay)
> will give the reinforcement needed to make it work. Is this doomed to
> fail too?
You need something that will support the strain that made it rip.
My mother-in-law repaired all ripped jeans by taking out the side seams,
cutting a new piece of fabric to match, and sewing it all back together.
For your problem and level of sewing skills, I would recommend cutting a
piece of denim (you can use a trashed pair of your own blue jeans or buy
a pair of chidren's jeans at a thrift store or something to get denim
that has already been washed and worn some and some fusible web -- the
people at teh fabric store will know what this is; one brand is called
Stitch Witchery. They are sold in packages and sometimes also by the yard.
Then you cut the denim big enough to cover the rip, the holes you
punched, and leave a 2-3 inch march all the way around and then
following the fusible web instructions, fuse the patch to the jeans on
the right side if you don't mind the look of a patch or on the wrong
side if you do. For denim, I would recommend a double layer of fusible web.
Then to make it last longer, you could sew around the edges of the patch
either by hand or machine if you want.
--
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your
work with excellence.
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