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| Monster Knee Patches |
I've spent several years patching jeans and work clothes for my husband. Construction is HARD on clothes, and often a minor repair can keep a decent pair of jeans going for a lot longer. It's also much easier and less expensive than having to replace them every time a knee wears out or a nail rips a hole in them. I've always made his repairs as discreet as possible, and while the satisfaction of a great patch job is one I always savor, I kind of wanted to do something more fun when my oldest son started wearing the knees out of his jeans with unmatched rapidity. Apparently little boys can be just as hard on clothes as construction!
I was all excited when I saw the Pin where the lady had used felt to make monster faces in the knee holes! What a perfect solution! Except the only felt I have laying around here is craft felt and I was pretty sure that it was not going to hold up even as long as the original jeans did. But I did have some scrap duck canvas, and I am so happy with the result, I thought I'd share just how easy it is to make awesome monster patches for your sons' holey jeans!
Here's what you need:
- scrap duck canvas or other heavy material
- fabric marking pen (I started with the pen, but was happier with the chalk pen)
- scissors
- white and black fabric paint
- a paintbrush
You might want to iron the knees of the jeans before you begin. Often ripped knees are stretched out around the hole, so ironing will make them a little flatter and easier to work with when you start sewing your patch in.
I started by drawing a basic face on the jeans. You don't have to, but I'm kind of anal like that!
Now cut squares out of the duck canvas that are larger than the face. It's a good idea to reinforce the whole knee area because it endures a lot of stress, so I always make the patch a lot bigger than the hole it will be covering.
Next, I chose to cut the hole into an even mouth. You can skip this step, if you want. The strings hanging everywhere might be an interesting effect!
Now slide your patch up inside the pant leg and figure out where you want it to sit. You want to make sure your top edge will not be behind the eyes you've drawn or you'll have stitching going across them when you sew in your patch. Also make sure it sits evenly behind the hole so you'll have enough room to stitch around the edges. Once you get it where you'll want it, take your pen and trace around the mouth opening, then pull the patch out. I chose to draw the teeth on before I painted them in, but you don't have to. Now's a good time to paint on your eyes, as well.
Check the instructions on your fabric paint! Mine said to let it dry for 24 hours, then heat set. Since it wasn't tacky after about 30 minutes, I went ahead and heat set it. I'll let you know how that turns out!
Put the patch back inside the pant leg with the mouth showing through the hole in the jeans and pin the outer edges in place. Be careful not to catch the back of the pantleg or you won't be able to sew the patch into the pants!
Now comes the fun part. It is completely possible to handsew these patches in, but I used my machine. I ran a seam straight across the bottom edge of my patch (you should be able to feel it through the top of your material and up the outside edge clear to the top. You'll have to keep adjusting your material to make sure you don't catch the sides or back of the pants in your seam. Then I pulled it off the machine, fed the pants onto my machine the opposite way and repeated. All four sides of your patch should be permanently in place!
Next, pin the fabric around the mouth and sew around that. I like to use a small zigzag stitch just for extra hold. And you're all done with the sewing!
Last of all I put on the black fabric paint to add a little character to the eyes! Now my son has two "new" awesome pairs of jeans that he can wear... as soon as that paint cures! :)
