Mending a hole or tear in denim

Margaret Chandler, a professional seamstress and a member of our meetup.com group, led a session on patching holes in denim garments, on “skinny-fying” jeans, and on hemming jeans.

To patch a hole/tear in denim:

• Cut a patch piece larger than the hole to be patched. Allow for about 1″ margin on each side; you can trim it to size later.
• Pin patch piece to inside of hole, facing out (right side of patch to wrong side of jeans).
• With wrong side up, stitch around perimeter of patch piece. (Note that a gray or sage green thread blends better with lighter denims than blue thread.) Pink edge of patch piece with pinking shears close to stitching line, or serge the edge.
  
  
  
• With right side up, stitch straight lines in zig zag pattern over hole, then turn garment 90 ° and again, stitch straight lines in zig zag pattern.
  
  
  
• Finished patch, inside:
  
  
  
• Finished patch, outside: