Upcycled, vintage and secondhand style for your sustainable wardrobe

Before and After of blue and black denim jeans with tears repaired with iron on reverse repair patches by vintage-patch.co.uk in floral and denim designs

Fix that embarrassing hole in your denim jeans with iron on jeans repair patches by Vintage-Patch

Ooops, that’s torn it!

My jeans always rip here first…. and judging by your comments on our facebook page @vintagepatchstyle, I’m not alone!  Jeans fabric gets thin and fragile after many wears and it’s not helped when we prefer to wear our jeans skintight!

I don’t find this the easiest area to repair.  Stitching alone is likely to give way when denim which has thinned by friction is stressed.  I could of course stabilise the area with fabric on the inside or outside, but pinning this into position over seams without it wrinkling and pulling is tricky and result in puckers and possible discomfort when wearing the final result.  This is where Vintage-Patch iron on jeans repair patches come into their own as I can easily iron them into position ready for further stitching if desired.

Equipment and Materials

Raw Materials: A pair each of black and mid blue denim jeans

1 x Large Vintage-Patch Black Floral Reverse Repair Patch
1 x Large Mid Blue Denim Reverse Repair Patch

Our Reverse Repair ‘Undercover’ patches are perfect when you want to make a repair from underneath the tear with the patch fabric visible on the outside of the garment.  See our range of Reverse Repair Patches

Additional Equpiment: My go to patch application kit includes an iron, tape measure or ruler, and pins or chalk to mark position plus needle and thread and scissors.

The Repair

Step 1

My first step was to tidy up the tear.  I wanted the pretty floral fabric of the patch to show through on the black jeans so I cut a slightly larger hole in a roughly triangular shape.  I didn’t want to compromise the leg seam of the jeans so cut just inside this. On the blue jeans, I decided to leave the tear as it was.

Step 2

After turning the jeans inside out, I ironed the area to be patched as flat as possible and double checked the unglued area of the patch fabric was sufficient to cover the hole.  I didn’t want the adhesive showing through the tear, and melting over the plate of the iron during application (trust me, it makes a mess which is a nuisance to clean off.)

Step 3

I removed the backing paper from the outside margin of the floral patch to reveal the shiny gummed area. Then I placed the patch face down into position and pressed with a hot dry iron following the detailed instructions in the pack.  It was important to ensure I had sufficient heat to fully melt the adhesive film so it meshed into the fabric of the jeans, whilst ensuring that I didn’t scorch either the patch or the jeans.  I think the floral fabric peeking through the right side looks really sweet.

Step 4

With the blue jeans, I used a mid blue denim Reverse Repair Patch which I applied in the same way as the floral one.  The denim is thicker than cotton so I needed a little extra ironing time to ensure the glue melted and a firm bond was achieved. I was careful over ironing the seamed area for the the same reason.  As you can see, the blue denim of the patch is visible though the tear, which is an effect many of my customers favour.

Step 5

Provided I had made a good glue bond with ironing, I could have left both patches as they were, but I always prefer to add a few stitches for extra stability and a more attractive finish, especially with jeans which take so much punishment in terms of wear and washing.  For the floral patches, I added some chain stitich in a contrast thread, and with the blue jeans, whilst I like the darker denim of the patch showing through, I decided to darn the tear for a less visible effect.

Full instructions for our patches are in each pack or we have a great tutorial online -just check out our INSTRUCTIONS.

The Result!

Why not have a go yourself?  Better still, email me a photo of your creation so I  can feature it on the website.

If you enjoyed this article, give it a share or pin

Want more advice like this?

Get a heads up when our next post is published by signing up to our email list for clothing repair tips, upcycled fashion ideas and exclusive promotions.

Check out these posts too!