It was getting ridiculous. My kids' pants drawers were getting emptier and emptier as the "holy jeans" pile kept on growing. Daily, it seemed. With 2 car-driving, sidewalk chalk-drawing, rough and tumble little boys, it's no wonder even brand new jeans get their knees worn out in such a short time here. But Mom's sanity and budget of not being able to keep said jeans nice was definitely suffering.
And while designer jeans now come pre-holed, pre-distressed, some of these moree naturally made holes just don't pass the coolness test. So, on to my fix-it-quick idea.
First you need:
- Some jeans with worn knees. Knees that are getting thin, have small tears, or holes that you still find manageable. Not the already-slit-across-the-knees-and-fraying kind.
- An iron-on fusible interfacing, such as Pellon, sold at fabric stores. Joanns keeps theirs behind the fabric desk so you just ask for it when you go to get it cut. To fix 5 pair of jeans (10 knees) I purchased 5/8 of a yard, with a 40% of coupon. Cost me like 33 cents. It comes in all kinds of weights, so choose what you want and will be comfortable for your kids. I purchased a featherweight. Perhaps next time I might choose one more strudy, but so far this one is holding up really well.
- Hard surface, such as a wooden cutting board. NOT a cushy surface such as an ironing board or carpet.
- Scissors
- Iron
Next: Cut out a rectangle that will cover the worn spot, with some room around it as well. Turn the jeans inside out and place on the cutting board. Then, with a hot iron, press firmly around each edge of the fabric to seal the edges, waiting 10-30 seconds before moving to the next spot.
Then firmly press in the middle of the fabric, until the whole thing is fused to the jeans. If it is not sticking, make sure your iron is hot enough, that you are pressing firmly, and that you are on a hard surface. Also, I found much more success when I had steam in my iron and could steam it down as well.
And Voila. For pennies and about 2 minutes of your time, you have made the back of your kids' jeans that much more sturdy!
Between this and the solution to the missing socks mystery posted by Janae, most of your worries should be solved. Well, almost.
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Just finished fixing 5 more pairs of jeans for 22 cents!
Tip 1: the featherweight works just fine 🙂
Tip 2: Also, don’t be tempted to try to pull the pellon while it’s still warm, because it WILL come up with enough effort and then won’t iron back down. Let it cool completely.
Tip 3: If some of your jeans have already warned through and have fraying holes, you can further solidify them from shredding further by applying “Fray-Check”, a liquid sold in the sewing isles (kind of like clear nail polish for fabrics)
Thanks for the great suggestion. Although my girls are older, they still get holes in their jeans, and I’ve just been dealing with ironing on the jeans patches to the front — which really shows up, and you have to sew down the edges or they peel off after a while. I think I’ll give your idea a try on their most recent pair that is starting to show a slight hole at the knee.