Not sure if this is the right forum, but sewing is an art, right?
Anyway, I have a large number of denim jeans, and they all seem to wear in the crotch long before they’re ready to retire. I have maybe five pair of jeans that all fit well, and are in great condition except for holes in the crotch, well, inner thigh would be more accurate.
I’d like to save these pants! What do I do? I don’t have a sewing machine, but I did take home-ec in middle school and was kind of ok at sewing, though I don’t really remember much any more.
I imagine I can just get some other piece of fabric (maybe cannibalize one pair of jeans to save the others?) and sew it over the hole? What stitch should I use? What sort of thread? What’s the best way to affix the patch? Should it be on the inside or outside of the pant?
If the hole isn’t that big and there isn’t a lot of fraying, I’d put the patch on the inside. I’d use the whip stitch. If you have to put the patch on the outside, it will add bulk and it will be noticeable. Then again, how many people are going to be looking at your crotch? I hope this helps.
Oh my. I think I’ll skip my rejoinder. When I have problems like the OP, I take my garments to a nice Korean lady who does dry cleaning, hems, alterations, patching, etc.
Get yourself some iron on patches. Available in the notions section of your local drugstore or supermarket (where they sell the needles and thread). No sewing skills required.
They are designed for repairing jeans. If there is enough fabric remaining (i.e. the area is worn thin, or there is a straight line rip) you can iron them onto the inside. If the area is completely worn through, with actual holes, iron them onto the outside.
I have used these with great success, and recently recommended them to my father when he had similar worn jeans issues.
I have to repair my daughter’s pants in the same place, and she won’t let me use the iron-on patches anymore because she finds them uncomfortable - probably because they are large holes. The holes in the legs of the pants are usually a couple of inches long before I can retrieve them and make repairs, so the repairs are fairly extensive and apparent, but they work.
I save an old pair of jeans to use for patches - stretch denim if I have it. I cut the patch large enough so that I can sew one edge of it to the inner leg seam and one edge of it to the crotch seam. This way the attachment stitching won’t show as much. I hold it up to the outside of the jeans to figure out where to cut it to size it the way I described. Then I cut out the patch, zigzag the perimeter so it won’t fray, and sew it to the inside of the pants. I sew the 2 edges to the seams, and for the rest, I try to sew in the same direction as the grain of the jeans material (vertically) so the stitching blends in pretty well. It’s not a great repair, and I’m not much of a seamstress, but it holds the holes together. When I use the iron-on patches, the patches don’t stretch the same as the denim and it doesn’t last well. It probably works better on a non-stressed area.
