Patching boys jeans

I saw these pair of jeans that my son has, and realized that I need to fix them.  I knew that I needed to patch them, but I wanted to do something a little bit more creative that the plain patch job.  I decided that I would sew patches on the outside of them, in the shape of dump trucks.  Here is what I did.   Please understand that I seem to want to do things in the most difficult way possible.  I don’t know why, I just have that gift.  At the end, you can read what I would have done that could have simplified things.

Finished Product: Patched Boy

After many drawings from my head, I finally got one of my boys dump trucks and tried to draw a sketch from the truck.  Here is what I came up with:

Drawing of dump truck

I then took this drawing and traced it on some knee patches that we got at a garage sale who knows when.  You can also use pieces of old jeans.  I was able to draw two dump trucks on one patch.

Dump trucks on one knee patch

Then I cut them out.  In order to sew these on the jeans, I needed to take out the seam so that I could open up the jeans to have a flat surface to work.  I started going just half way up, but when I went to sew, it wasn’t quite enough.  I ended up taking it all out.

Taking out seams on jeans

Then I sewed the patches over the holes.  After I sewed the outline of the dump trucks, I then sewed the basic lines of the trucks.

Truck sewn over the hole

It didn’t end up looking perfect, but I do like the idea.  I then pinned the pants back together and was able to sew a bit back up with the sewing machine.  I did, however, end up sewing most of it back together by hand.  It sucked. Don’t be a victim of useless handwork you can do faster with a machine.

Here is what I should have done that would have made it a much easier, faster project.  If I just wanted to sew it on with the sewing machine, I should have opened up the outside seam, then I could have just turned the jeans inside out and sewn them back up with the sewing machine very easily. I could have also just sewn the details onto the truck and then ironed the patch on and called it good enough, although the patches tend to do best if sewn on.

Experience is the best teacher, with the drawback of giving the test first, and the instruction afterword. Hopefully it will go faster for you than it did for me.

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