Here’s the easiest way to access all of our favorite methods for mending jeans here at Crafting a Green World!
Here at Crafting a Green World, we spend a lot of time mending our jeans. Sometimes the damage is wear and tear, sometimes it’s rips and holes, and sometimes it’s not actually damage at all but a hem that needs to be shortened or, as in the case of growing kids–lengthened!
All our tutorials make for a wealth of information, but they can be a lot to wade through. So to make it easy for you to find exactly what you’re looking for, here’s an organized list of all our tutorials useful for mending jeans. Whether you want a cute way to patch a hole in the knee of a pair of kid’s jeans, or a long-term solution to a thigh rip, or honestly anything at all, we’ve got you covered!
Mending a Thigh Rip
This is a pretty standard repair that uses a patch on the wrong side of the fabric, but there’s a lot of advice specific to thigh wear and tear also discussed. Of special importance is reinforcing a LOT of real estate around the rip, because the worn fabric is likely to extend across a large part of the thigh area.
Repairing a Tear
This is a standard method of repair that uses fusible interfacing instead of a scrap fabric patch. Fusible interfacing is easier than sewing on a patch, but it’s not as trustworthy for spots that get a lot of wear. It should work for damage that was caused by an accident, not wear and tear, though.
Patching a Hole
This more traditional method of mending a hole by patching it from the outside of the fabric is a lot less common these days, but it’s still very workable, and it gives you the opportunity to use a cute patch! Store-bought patches work fine, but you can up the level of creativity here by DIYing your own patch–even a patch made of quilting cotton would work with some interfacing to reinforce it and satin-stitching around the edges to keep it from fraying.
Mending a Hole in a Back Pocket with an Inside Patch
This method is a little fiddly unless you want to remove the back pocket and sew it back on afterwards–which you can! If you don’t mind pricking your finger 1,000 times feeling around the inside of the pocket, though, it’s a lot quicker to leave the pocket attached while you make this mend, and depending on patch and thread color, the final result can look nearly invisible. If you’re looking for a more colorful repair, though, check out visible mending!
Replacing a Zipper
A broken zipper is usually a game-ender for your jeans, so being able to replace it is a game-changer! Matching thread is important here if you want your repair to look seamless, but matching the color of the zipper isn’t very important, since it doesn’t usually show.
Replacing a Button
This is a little less common for jeans, which usually have snaps, but button-fly jeans deserve well-crafted repairs, as well! I’m not particularly married to mitchy-matchy buttons and thread, so I like to play around with my choices here, but matching thread and the button that came with your jeans should make your repair nearly seamless.
Hemming Jeans with Bias Tape
This can be nearly invisible or super cute, depending on the fabric that you choose. If you have to cut a lot of fabric off the hem, you can use that excess fabric as the bias tape, resulting in a reinforced bottom hem that looks almost identical to a conventional bottom hem.
Hemming Jeans with a Controlled Fray
This is a super quick and easy hemming job that results in a very specific frayed hem look that I think goes well with certain outfits. I love it for the jeans that I wear with my Dr. Martens! You could even hand-stitch this method if you didn’t have access to a sewing machine.
Lengthening Pants with a Ruffle
Kids just keep growing, so if you know how to lengthen pants, then you’ve got a cheat code for saving tons of money on their wardrobe. This method is super cute for anyone who would enjoy having ruffled bottom hems on their jeans, but to make a non-ruffled version, just match the lines of the pants legs with your additional fabric.
DIYing Bell Bottoms
Give those skinny jeans a big, fun flare-up with this easy method for DIYing bell bottoms. It involves ripping a side seam on each of the pants legs and rehemming the bottoms, so make sure you’ve got exactly the thread color you want for resewing everything. Matching thread makes the job look more professional, but contrasting thread makes it look more fun!
One would think that we’ve covered every possible way to repair jeans, but I’m sure there are more ways to mess up jeans than even I have heard of yet!
