It is mending month at Craft Magazine and I have used that as an excuse to get all my mending done at home. Kids can really tear through their clothes and while I try to fix simple things I usually don’t go all out with big tears and wardrobe malfunctions. However, since the economy is pretty cruddy, I thought I would brush off my sewing skills and start really fixing everything I possibly can.

Today, I patched my jeans while wearing them using an upholstery needle. I like a challenge. It’s not the best stitching ever, but it gets the job done. If you have never used an upholstery needle, it is curved to allow you to stitch and patch in places that you can’t get a needle in behind the fabric – like a cushion or the side of the couch or in my case, my jeans since I actually have them on. One pair of jeans saved thanks to a simple patch. YAY! Now for the pictures to show you the patching process as well as the finished result:

Sewing the patch on my jeans. I used a denim scrap that I saved from shortening another pair for my daughter.

The finished product

If you want to get creative, you can stencil a design on fabric and make your patch a designer work of art like I did with these pants:

I used Wonder Under to iron on the owl and cotton thread to attach buttons for eyes

How the owl looks finished on the jeans

I have added two more birds to the jeans to tie them all in as part of the design