Visible Mending Jeans
Why I love these jeans
I bought these jeans many years ago before I could sew and they were a special find because they were a rare pair that actually fit both my waist and hips. Most pants that I try on gape horribly in the back, and it’s one reason I love making my own pants with curved waistbands to fix this major fit challenge. So when they started to get holes, I was determined to save them with mending. I even tried a few years ago, but my patches turned out to be too small as the holes quickly spread. So they’ve been in my to-mend pile for a very long time I finally got the motivation to do it!
Visibly mended jeans with rows of running stitch in blue thread on the thighs and knees. Andrea is also wearing a rusty orange tank top under a grey pullover with a dark red patterned yoke.
Andrea's knee held up toward the camera to show off the visible mending on her jeans, including blue running stitch and small embroidered crosses over rips in the fabric.
Mending
The biggest problem was actually not in the knees or thighs, but in the crotch. I had this huge rip and very fragile fabric just under the butt that felt kind of daunting to fix because it was so close to the seams and in such an awkward spot. But two patches, one on either side of the centre back seam, did the trick. One side wasn’t even torn, just disintegrating, but I figured if I was taking the time to patch them, I should do that side too because it looked like it only had a few more wears before it would rip.
I decided to go with white thread that would be a little less visible because I didn’t really want to draw too much attention to my crotch, and I think it turned out well.
Closeup of Andrea's butt in tight jeans with white running stitch over a rip just visible inside the right thigh.
Closeup of the butt of a pair of jeans hanging from a hanger. Rows of white running stitch and a big tear in the fabric are visible inside the thighs below the butt.
Closeup of a pair of jeans turned inside out with patches along the butt and inner thighs.
The knee/thigh patches were a bit more straightforward and I wanted them to have that classic “visible mending” look, so I used navy blue sashiko thread. One of the legs didn’t have any actual holes, just very worn fabric, but I could tell it would tear soon, so I decided to just add the patch along the whole front thigh and knee for reinforcement and to complete the look.
You’ll notice that all my patches are serged around the edges, which I just figured I might as well do to add a little durability to them. I’m not sure if it’s a thing folks normally do, but I like how tidy it is.
One last thing I did was to remove the tag from the side seam of the leg right at my hip. Where it was attached, the fabric was becoming really threadbare, but once I took it out, I could just sew it down with my sewing machine to the seam allowance, which acted as a small patch. I may have to address this spot again in the future, but for now I think it’s ok.
Andrea's bottom half from the side. She's stepping one foot forward to show the mending stitching along both knees and a tiny bit at the crotch.
A pair of jeans hangs inside-out on a hanger. They look pretty worn and there are patches on the thighs and knees with running threads in rows and lots of tiny knots.
Resources
I used the book Visible Mending by Arounna Khounnoraj of Bookhou for inspiration. I got my blue sashiko thread at Knit City Vancouver a few years ago and the white Alabama Chanin button thread from my visit to A Verb for Keeping Warm even before that, so these jeans have a lot of fond memories embedded in them! (Sorry I don’t remember the vender of the sashiko supplies at Knit City.) The denim patches are leftover cone denim from Blackbird that I used for the Ginger jeans I made.
Have you tried visible mending? How did it go? I’m pretty sure all of us who have done this to our jeans are in some kind of club!
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