Quick & Easy DIY: Patching Some Over-Distressed Jeans

As most people do, I have a favorite pair of jeans. They are a pair of Lucky Brand Brooke Legging Jeans that I picked up for a steal at TJ Maxx over the summer. They are a lighter wash than I usually go for, but they are so incredibly soft and broken in, so I wear them ALL the time. They were a teensy bit distressed when I got them and one day when I was putting on my boots a metal clip got caught on my jeans and tore a distressed bit into a full-on hole.

Once you have a hole it’s only a matter of time before your toe gets stuck in there when putting your jeans on and rips the crap out of it! I don’t mind a bit of distressing, but I prefer not to have awkwardly placed holes.

I bought a back-up pair of the same jeans when they went on sale at Lucky, but they don’t fit quite the same as my original beloved pair. So, I decided that I’d try to go ahead and fix the hole.

I was inspired by this pair of Loft jeans that has a lighter wash, but the distressed holes mended with a darker wash. I also found this video from Levi’s really helpful and decided to just go for it.

I didn’t currently have any of my jeans in my ‘to donate’ pile, but I did have a few pairs of Old Navy jeans that Jack grew out of in the fall. So, I grabbed a pair that were just a shade or two darker than my pair. They look pretty similar in this picture, but you’ll see that they are a little darker as we get into it.

I cut a square out of Jack’s old jeans that was a bit bigger than I would need. I kept the cut up jeans in my sewing pile o’ crap in case I need them again in the future.

I then trimmed the square into the shape of the hole and rounded off the corners. NOTE: I made sure to line up the grain of the jeans so that they blend together better. Also, for stretching purposes I thought this might be a good idea.

I flipped my jeans inside out and pinned on the new patch.

I then flipped them back right-side out and started stitching in a circle around the destroyed area. I used a bright blue thread, but it actually blended in well since I was making tiny little stitches.

Here’s what it looked like on the inside when I finished making the circle all the way around. I trimmed the patch a bit closer to the stitching so that there wasn’t much excess.

And here they are, all finished!

I was actually surprised at how quick and easy this turned out to be! I like that my jeans are still a bit distressed, but I don’t have to worry about accidentally ripping them all the way across.

I’ve worn them for a week or so since I did my patch job and they are perfect! Now that I know how easy it is to do this type of repair, I have a couple other pairs of jeans that I may attack. YAY for DIYs!

Have you patched a pair of jeans? Did you use this method or another one?

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