My two boys tear up the knees of their jeans like crazy. It's incredible how the rest of the pants stay looking almost new and yet the knees are torn to shreds. I'm not in any way a seamstress so mending them is out of the question. So, can anyone tell me where I can get good ol' fashioned knee patches for their jeans? I tried WM a long time ago, but had no luck. Do they even make them anymore?
Thank you in advance.
L.
Thanks, ladies. I'm going to go out to the fabric stores and see what I can find. And I'll try my hand at the adhesives.
I appreciate it.
L.
My son does the same thing. I found iron on ones at Amazon. I haven't ordered them yet, but I am getting ready to.
Get some denim at Hobby Lobby or some other store that does NOT have expensive fabric.
Also buy some heavy duty Heat and Bond or some other brand of web-like material that melts and bonds to pieces of fabric together when heated.
Then take the denim home and wash it on the temp you wash his jeans. I wash some items on hot, some on warm but never anything on cold. Dry the denim on high/hot.
NO DRYER SHEETS, NO DOWNY, NOTHING BUT A SMALL AMOUNT OF REGULAR DETERGENT. Anything you put in the washer or dryer will cause the fabric to NOT bond together.
Wash all the jeans you are going to adhere the patches to the same way. No dryer sheets, no Downy or other fabric softener. Nothing but plain ordinary detergent.
Take the Heat and Bond and follow the directions. Heat the iron and iron the mesh stuff on the FRONT FRONT FRONT of the fabric.
You don't need the back of the denim showing through.
You want the right side of the fabric stuck to the wrong/inside of the knees. So it will be the same. Not wrong sides together.
Then make your own patches. I'd say if he's wearing a size 6 boys jeans I'd make the patches 4" wide by 5" tall. IF that fits in the jeans okay.
Then take the jean legs and turn them inside out, select where you want the patch to be stuck. Peel the paper off and adhere the patch using the iron.
Cheap home made patches that can be reinforced any time you want.
I fixed a denim skirt this way. Since I put the patch fabric facing the back of the skirt the fabric is identical. A person can't even tell it was torn. Same thing with a navy corduroy jumper years ago. It was torn several inches. But since I made the fabrics both facing the same way you can't see it.
You can get those iron on knee patches pretty much anywhere that has sewing supplies. Even our CVS and Walgreens stores have them. Just turn the pants inside out and iron them on the inside of the knees. Easy peasy!
You can get "iron on" patches at any store that sells fabric. It might work to put them on inside the jeans before they wear out to reinforce the knees.
Or you could cut fabric from another worn out pair and have someone sew them for you. There is "stitch witchery" an iron on material, to apply a patch, but I don't know if it would hold up to the wear and tear of little boys knees.
www.joann.com for crafts and fabric. can order online if you don't have store in your area.
One thing I have seen that I really like is to out a fun fabric behind the rip. You could easily buy some of the smaller fabric bundles, turn the pants inside-out, and use liquid stitch to glue the patch on. Then flip the pants back out, and it looks like the pants were ripped on purpose just to show off the fabric. :) you could go as far as using an iron-on patch behind the fun fabric to reinforce it a bit.
Your local sewing center should have iron on patches.
Up to about age 8 I made a point of buying reinforced knee pants for our son.
What mamazita said. Iron them on the new pants, before they get worn through.
I bought them at Walmart. Don't know why yours didn't have them. I iron them on the inside of the jeans. That way they don't have that 70s look - just that 'distressed at the knee' look but they won't fall apart.
Yes, to everything Gamma G said. I also saved old jeans and used that denim to patch newer jeans, and cut pockets off of worn out pants (I have 4 kids, so lots of hand me downs) to use them to patch rips and tears that were not on the knees. This was a great use for pants that were too far gone to donate. I also cut off all the buttons and any other decorative patches/stitching off of other worn out clothing and the kids use it for crafts or, again, I can reuse them on other clothing.
And although I really like the adhesive products, I always hand stitched around the patch to make sure it stayed in place. You can even do it in another color or a heavy thread to make the stitching stand out, the kids always liked picking the color :)
Het Gamma G, what a great tutorial. Makes me want to rip something so I can try it! A bouquet to you!
