How to Repair Jeans

As part of our new ‘How to’ guides, we want to share some tips and tricks with you to help your clothes last longer and look better. Here at Messina Hembry, sustainability through reusing and making the most out of clothes is one of the most important things to us - that's why all of our designer vintage clothing ranges are top quality as well as preloved. This month, we’re focusing on how to repair jeans so that you can keep wearing your favourite denim even when disaster strikes.

For most of us, jeans are a staple item of our wardrobe. They’re sturdy, they’re reliable, they go with everything and are suitable for most occasions. We spend a lot of time and effort picking out the perfect jeans, so when they rip or tear, it can be pretty heartbreaking. However, not all hope is lost when you discover a hole in your favourite denim - we’re going to teach you how to repair jeans in an easy and cost effective way:

What you will need:
- Matching thread
- Scrap fabric of your choice
- Lightweight fusible
- Scissors
- Sewing machine (that can sew in reverse!)
- Iron
- Ironing board

The method:
- Straight stitch

How long it will take:
Up to 30 mins

First thing’s first…
What’s fusible? If you’re not that familiar with haberdashery terminology, fusible is a lightweight non-woven webbing which, when ironed between fabrics, will hold them together (often used for hemming). You’ll use this to hold your replacement fabric to the back of your rip/tear/hole

Beginning the preparation…
We strongly advise that you put your jeans (or other denim item) over an ironing board to avoid cutting through any other part of the garment. Once done, trim off the frayed edges of the scrap fabric you’ve chosen to help repair your jeans to help it blend better into the garment. You can choose another type of similar denim or opt for a totally different type of fabric to add some variety into your newly refreshed jeans!

Making the new fabric stick…
Turn your garment inside out on the ironing board then measure your scrap fabric and cut enough to cover the damaged area plus a little more to help secure the fabric on the denim - if not, the new fabric may easily tear due to the weakened part it is sewn to. Next, tear off parts of your fusible and make a ring with it around the hole; with this, you need to be careful not to get any over the edge of your fabric or you’ll see it on the outside! Centre your fabric over the hole and then iron the backside of it. We recommend using the steam setting and hold it over for a few seconds to ensure the fusible has stuck properl

Let’s get sewing…
Find a thread that matches your new fabric and jeans and set your sewing machine up with it. With jeans that have been worn a fair amount, generally a lighter colour works for the more worn area and then a darker one for the less worn area. It’s not necessary to have two different threads, depending on what final outcome you want - but for a more blended look definitely go for two.

Change your stitch length to relatively short - not so short that you’re only sewing in one spot but not too big that it runs the risk of being worn loose. Your garment should be inside out when you start sewing on the outside of the hole. Sew forward until you reach the inside of the hole on your scrap fabric and then hold your reverse button and stitch back to your starting point. Keep repeating this and as you sew lightly, pull the fabric to the side so that as you sew forward and backwards it will zig zag (not because you’re using zig zag stitch on your machine but because the motion will create a zig zag). Go around the whole hole before then stitching around the perimeter of the hole to stick down any of those loose fibres - you can also zig zag here but don’t pull the fabric to make it do so

What next…
Once everything is nicely stitched, you can turn your garment over and trim off the extra threads both at the front and back. The stitching pattern will be zig zag around the perimeter with tighter stitching around the edge of the tear. If for whatever reason your chosen scrap fabric didn’t get totally stitched down, make sure you cut off any excess fabric; it may curl up as the jeans are washed and worn. To prevent the fabric from unravelling in the future, we recommend cutting the scrap fabric with pinking shears (which are quite niche - we know!). If you don’t have pinking shears, scissors will suffice but you may have more fraying of the scrap fabric on the inside of the jeans

Finishing up…
Whilst your garment is still inside out, press the fabric to smooth out all the stitching before turning the garment the right side out and press the outside of this area also. Clip any extra threads that might have come loose as you were working, try the jeans on hey presto! Your jeans are repaired and happiness restored!