The repair on these jeans has had a number of incarnations. They already had the hole when I bought them second hand for $2 (I do love the $2 rack!) which I believe was a design feature, as they have other points of distressed fabric.
My first go was simply to maintain the state of disrepair, tacking down the horizontal threads to a backing, to prevent repeated washing from causing the damage to increase over time.
But then I got all enthusiastic, and tried a Sashiko-style stitching in one of the traditional flower designs.
When I did this, I stitched through tissue paper to mark the lines, and I didn't use a hoop to support the stretchy fabric as I stitched.
I wasn't very happy with my results. The lines were uneven and wobbly, the stitches too large, and the backing fabric behind the hole buckled.
Also, the design I chose was lost in the different fabrics.
For attempt number three, I decided that a design that went from edge to centre in several places was in order. I played with my drawing app (Infinite design) and came up with a 6-armed spiral. This was traced from the tablet to tracing paper (greaseproof kitchen paper) and then onto sticky water-soluble stabiliser. (I still find the window the best way to get enough light to trace the design through this stabiliser.)
I chose a ball of thrifted crochet thread, and I did need to unwind a length before reaching unused thread. Someone had unravelled their work and rewound the thread onto the ball, leaving thread that had wear marks and worn spot that I didn't want to use in my stitching. This is something to be aware of when stitching with thrifted yarns and threads.
After washing the jeans to remove any wear-stretch from the knee, I set the hole in a medium embroidery hoop and applied the stick-on design. In order to keep the width of the fly stitch as even as possible, I marked a dotted line on each side of the stitching line.
I started stitching from the outside edge into the centre, working my way around the circle.
This was a quick project, and while it reminds me a little of a baseball, this is the most secure mend so far, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.
The sticky soluble stabiliser is very good to work with. The design is securely in place, and with stretchy fabrics, you don't really need an embroidery hoop to prevent stretching or puckering. It dissolves very quickly. You do need a good rinse at the end to remove it from all the fibres, otherwise your stitches may be a little stiff.
There are many different ways to approach repairing a hole in the knees of your jeans.
We would love to see some of the creative ways you have mended your favourite jeans. Subscribe to our website, and we can post your work in our Members' Gallery.
See a short video of the making of Katie on YouTube.
Find the design created for Katie on our Resources page.
See our Fly stitch blog tutorial for a refresher on how to do Fly stitch.
Or watch our Fly stitch tutorial video on YouTube.
See our other Fly stitch project, Dylan Revisited on our website.
