Handmade Patch for Favorite Pants

August 30, 2011
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14 comments

My son loves stripy pants as much as I like stripy socks. You can see in this old post that he’s been sporting these trousers for almost a year and a half. After finally wearing a hole in them, we tried to talk him into cut-off shorts, but he didn’t like the idea of his favorite pants being cut, so I ended up making a patch. It’s very rough, but it works. I just cut a scrap of yellow canvas fabric and ironed it onto the pants with double sided fusible, then zig-zag stitched around the edge. Then he asked for a giraffe, so I drew one with some non-toxic paint pens. He’s pretty excited!

If any of you have patching tips, I’d love to hear your comments. I’m sure there’s a better way to treat the edge, and I’ve also seen some cool embroidery done on patches before. Happy patching!


14 Responses
  1. Jacki

    cute kid! and, adorable patch! I do appliques over holes on knits and wovens. That giraffe patch on those pants doesn’t look “fixed”, it looks “embellished”. ;)

  2. Chantel

    I’ve seen holes that were patched from the back to look like monster faces. Jagged teeth or silly mouths for the hole, with a white background patched from the inside. Very cute! I do have to say that I love how your patch looks intentional rather than a “fix”. Definitely a great way to cover up a hole!

  3. Arwen

    My son has been wearing holes in all his pants lately, so I just patched a bunch of them. I cut pictures from my fabric scraps. The most popular were the dinosaur patches. Then I just used the ultra heat n bond. One patch started to peel off, so I used liquid stitch around the edges. I may go back and use liquid stitch on the others too.

  5. Captain Crafty

    That’s so funny, we have been doing a lot of this as of late.
    In fact I just added a few inches to bottom of some kids pants – I tried to funk it up and make it work!

  6. Captain Crafty

    Oh, and I forgot my tip – for thin or stretchy fabrics you can slip a sheet of paper underneath and inside the pants, then set your zig zag stitch to zero or one. The paper gives stability and makes it easier to sew – you just rip it off after you are done. This paper piece method works for all kinds of zig zag applique work!

  9. Pumpkinbear

    It also helps if you mend the hole or rip before you cover it with a patch. You don’t even have to really be able to sew–just close it up with crazy stitches, and it will keep the area underneath the patch more stable. I’ve also heard that patches with giraffes on them do work far better than any other type of patch.

    1. Joel

      Ha! Yes, the giraffe patches really do the job :)

      Thanks for the great tip on the inside of the patch. I think I remember my mom doing that for my jeans back in the day, but I forgot. Nice!

  11. Beth

    My daughter had those same pants and they were her favorites as well. We bought them in two sizes and we did cut one for shorts when she wore a hole threw but she too, didn’t like them then….I should have tried a patch. Live and learn!!

  12. Saskia

    My mom used to help us make our own patches. We would each get some fabric, fabric paint (the squeezable bottles with a fine tip) and go to town making flowers, animals, anything. Sometimes we’d add sparkles or sequins (which mostly came off in the wash, but we did it anyway). When they dried, they looked so cool and textured and unique. Then my mom would sew them on for us in whatever shape we cut out.
    They were rough, and definitely homemade, but we loved that we made them ourselves.

  13. Amber

    A patch that’s on the pants and not in the “dreaming about it” list while the pants are in the bottom of the drawer waiting to be mended, that’s the best kind of patch.
    I love the idea of the monster patch, esp as my 3-yo daughter believes that all clothes in holes come from crocodile bites.