I have three pants, all different fabrics. One is a very nice pair of jeans from Gymboree that I love they way they fit on him. A Carter's camo pant made of a lighter cotton. Lastly, a navy cargo pant made of a thicker cotton for my younger son--this one actually has paint stains and not a tear.
For the Gymboree jeans, I patched up the hole with two purchased patches. For the outside, I went with a cute baseball patch. We are baseball fans and this will be a fairly neutral but stylish option for him. I tried ironing this patch with a ironing-cloth first from the front side. The nice fuzziness of the patch melted a little and the adhesive was not activated. So I turned the pants inside out and ironed from the back side with a ironing-cloth again. This time it worked. So learn from me and just iron the back side of this patch.
On the inside there is a denim patch that gets ironed on. I thought it could use extra reinforcement since it is at the knee so I patched the backside also. Basically the two patches are against each other.
The Carter's camo pant has a rather large tear. I mended it once but simply sewing across like a seam but it did not hold. Again, it is at the knee and gets a lot of stress from movement, etc. Luckily this pant is straight with no taper at the ankle.
First, I cut right around the tear and matched the same length on the other leg.
Then I cut the bottom hem off; leaving a half inch seam allowance.
I turned the hem so that I could pin it (right-sides together) to the bottom of my new shorts. Yes, these pants are becoming shorts! Just in time for summer :)
Now sew the new hem on with your stitch line fairly close to the factory sewn hem line.
I also serged the seam but you could zig-zag stitch so that it stays nice.
Lastly, iron the seam down and look at how great those new shorts look.
Now, the navy pants with paint of them. They have a tapered leg and several spots of paint. I decided we need shorts more than we need pants at this point so I cut them about a half inch from the nice decorative stitching. Then I just did a simple rolled him that followed closely to the decorative line of stitching and used matching thread.
There was still a stain to cover. I had a football patch that would cover it perfectly and I knew the younger boy would be very happy with a football on his shorts. I ironed it on following the package instructions without any problems. Sure enough, the boy was happy to wear the new football shorts later that day.
Now we have two more shorts for summer and we have saved a nice pair of jeans to pass down to the younger boy. This mommy is happy with the mending.
PS. I found more mending on two pairs of pants this morning. Those knees are taking a beating. So I guess you will see more knee repairs next week.
