Adding patches to clothing has been the go to strategy for mending worn out clothing for centuries, and across all cultures for very good reason – it just works. I’m really passionate about mending broken things, and I really love adding patches to worn out clothing. I think it’s such a fun opportunity to take something that was potentially ruined, and give it new life, turning it into something beautiful and unique. So today I’ll be sharing my top 5 tips for mending worn clothing with patches.
MAKE IT LOOK INTENTIONAL
My first tip is to always make it look intentional. The winning strategy when mending is to fix it in a way that looks like it could have been a part of the original garment. You’re looking to improve the garment, not just mend the hole as quickly as possible. I believe this is the key to making sure that your mended garments actually get worn. A poorly mended garment is not going to be worn – but similarly, neither is a garment that was mended in a way that makes it look less stylish. So whenever tackling mending, I recommend always trying to mend in a way that adds beauty to your garment as well as function.
For these leggings that I mended for Birdie way back in 2017, I hand sewed two layers of jersey at the knees using a contrast thread and blanket stitch. As these were a ready made garment that I didn’t want to take apart (does anyone actually like unpicking overlock?) I hand sewed the patches to cover where she had blown out the knees crawling around. We managed to get a whole season out of these and i’m so glad that they were still cute enough to pass on to our neighbors for their little girl
MACHINE SEW PATCHES FIRST
My preference is always for machine sewn patches where possible because i think it makes the patch visually blend better with the original garment than a hand sewn patch. However this isn’t always convenient. I like to machine sew patches on all pants sewn for small children as a precaution. This is why you’ll find knee patches come as an option in my Mini Virginia leggings pattern. The benefit here is that the patch will take the wear first, making it easy to remove the patch later, and add a new one, while the original pants remain intact.
When adding a patch to an existing pair of pants I also like to do it by machine when possible. It’s obviously incredibly fiddly to do this on every garment, so I only do this on garments where I can easily unpick the inseam and side seam in the knee area. Here are a pair of Buddy’s pants from when he was little that I patched. He had ripped a big tear in the knee. So i unpicked the side seam and inseam of the knee and first zig zag stitched the tear closed. Then to make the repair look intentional, i cut two symmetrical patches, and added them to both knees (even though the right knee was intact). I used a twin needle for consistency with the rest of the garment, and then sewed the side seams back up. These track pants ended up lasting him the rest of the season, and even went on to be worn by my friends kids.
VISIBLE MENDING WHERE THE VIBE MATCHES
I love hand sewing, and I love hand sewn patches – but they have their place. I recommend only hand sewing patches where it matches the overall feel of the garment or where it’s not physically possible to sew with a machine.
For example an obviously hand sewn patch can look out of place on a very structured tailored garment, but look right at home on a pair of Sashiko jeans. If you need to hand sew a patch on a garment where visible stitches won’t be consistent with the feel of the garment, you might need to switch to a stitch that doesn’t show on the right side of the garment.
IRON ON PATCHES NEED TO BE SEWN TOO
No-one wants to hear this – but iron on patches need to be sewn too. Iron on patches are a wonderful quick fix and you can often find packs of iron on patches in sewing stores. Particularly for denim. These are so convenient as you can quickly iron them over your holes and you’re good to. However as a long term solution I would suggest sewing them down as well. I know that is extra work – but I know from experience that they never last with just the glue provided.
These jeans are a pair that I ripped a hole in back in 2012. At the time I purchased iron on denim knee patches from the local sewing store near my house and ironed them on. They looked great and I loved them, but not even a year later they started peeling at the edges and fall off despite very gentle washing and a lot of care. So I sat down with a rom com and hand sewed them down. They lasted many years after that.
FUTURE PROOF YOUR MAKES
Lastly, i think it’s worth remembering that there is value in future proofing your handmade clothing, especially if you know it’s going to wear in obvious places. When making clothing for my kids I will often add knee patches at the very beginning in the construction phase, which makes the knees much sturdier and means that if holes do develop, they develop on the patch. That was the method I used for these jeans I made for Buddy when he was a toddler. I cut up a pair of Chris’ old torn jeans to remake them into these pants and added leather knee patches to prevent wear.
This is helpful because the patch is usually made of a sturdier material, but also because patches are replaceable. When they do wear out they can be removed completely, or removed and replaced by a new patch. It’s about being proactive rather than reactive.
BONUS TIP – PREWASH YOUR PATCHES!
And as a small bonus tip about patches – please make sure that your patches are prewashed and preshrunk. The way I remember this is actually really a bit silly. There is a Bible verse where Jesus is using old wisdom to make a point:
No-one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on to an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse
Mark 2:21
I’m using this out of context – but the thing i love here is that 2000 years ago it was common knowledge that you should always preshrink your patches. So friends – please don’t forget to prewash your patches!
Some of my favourite patched garments
Birdie’s Giraffe Mini Jarrah Sweater Dress
Birdie’s favourite animal is the Giraffe, so as soon as I saw the See…
January 19, 2021
Gifts for my tiny fit models
I can’t really express enough the value of fit models. As I was developing…
February 16, 2016
The Mini Virginia leggings
As with the other Mini Patterns I’m so happy to be sharing with you…
December 16, 2015
an accidental perfect fit
Following on from my last post, there was such a great response to sharing…
September 11, 2014
grown up knee patches revisited
You remember my grown up kneepatch jeans right?! Well it’s been 9 months since…
April 19, 2013
tutorial: grown up knee patches
I love knee patches – and i’m so thrilled to see so many variations…
July 24, 2012
Adding knee patches to toddler pants
Buddy has been out of pants recently. Or rather, he’s so messy (oh boys)…
January 19, 2012Bunny’s Little Heart Knee Patch Pants
I suppose it was inevitable… but, I’m starting to work on kid sewing patterns.…
November 17, 2011