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@FreeCharlesManson Yeah I know. Hey, didn't you reply when I posted some photos two years ago? Those were the same jeans and I still wear them regularly. Of course they have been falling apart even more since then, but I just can't part with them.

@Niro Sure! Here are some pics. I should really repair the back pocket to keep the shape intact.

And here is a detail from the whiskers at the front. Of course whiskers generally become more and more beautiful with increasing wear.

But only up to the point where they tear apart. A repair makes the whiskering invisible and makes the fabric more rigid, which prevents the creasing that creates whiskers in the first place. The photo shows one such repaired spot - a pity. The rest of the whiskers are already showing signs of damage too, but I hope I can still enjoy them for a while.

Another hole appeared in the rear pocket in my jeans. I usually repair the jeans myself, but there are two problems now. First, not only the pocket has a hole but the fabric below it too. Second, I mended the pocket already once before, by hand stitching a patch behind the hole. But the fabric of the patch puts more wear on the fabric and is now destroying the stitching pattern on the pocket. I don't like that, because the pattern is an important part of the design.

What would be the best way to repair this?

Hello,

 

I have a jeans which I really like, but which is very worn out already. Suppose that I still want to keep it in a wearable condition as long as possible. Now of course there are webpages with, for example, washing advice, but they are generally also quite much concerned with preserving the colour / fades. But what if I don't care about that? What is then the best way to take care of jeans?

Thank you for the advice!

 

Sure I can post some pics - as you can see the invisible repair thing is not so important at this point:

http://i.imgur.com/DoMwSPC.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/OJlkY9F.jpg

I still wear them during most of the time off work. At least every other week I've had to repair some new rips. I never expected these jeans to last this long, but on the other hand I'd also never thought I would ever wear such worn out jeans.

Repairing a pair of jeans really becomes more difficult if you wait longer - when the damage proceeds from a rip of the warp threads to a true hole where the weft threads are gone too.

Such as with this hole at the corner of a pocket of my jeans (although in this case it didn't start as a rip, but just as a hole that eventually became too large):

The problem with such a hole is that you precisely don't have the weft threads to give a guidance for the shape.

My experience, both wit a sewing machine and with sewing by hand, is that the two layers of fabric (the jeans itself and the patch behind it) are usually unevenly pulled at, with the consequence that the patch moves between sewing both sides of it. This causes it to bulge, which looks terrible.

One solution is to pull everything closer together than intended before sewing. Hopefully, then, both effect cancel out each other. If you pull everything a bit too close to each other, it can create some extra unwanted tensions, but usually it is not catastrophic, I think. Better than a bulge in a weird place.

However, in this case, with all the very clearly visible lines, it created an asymmetrical appearance which looked quite weird. And which I didn't notice for quite some time, because it isn't really obvious when the jeans lies down 'flat' (or rather crinkled) in front of you. It is only clearly visible when you are narcissistic enough to look into the mirror or to make photos of yourself when wearing the jeans. (Hence the choice of photos in this post.)

A second attempt at a fix, this time using a ruler to make sure everything is positioned exactly symmetrically.

Seems good enough now, but I guess it just goes to show that there's always room to learn more! And maybe my experience can be useful for someone else too.

Well, that "at some point" arrived rather quickly!

These jeans are really getting too worn out. But already from when I got them I was determined to keep wearing them at least until march of this year. So I guess it'll be the full seat repair then.

Another crotch rip repair

Before:

After:

But more repairs will be necessary soon. A couple of other little holes are already visible. However, just fixing those might not be sufficient. If the fabric around them has also worn thin, the patch or darning needs to cover that as well. Otherwise, within no time there will be a new hole right at the edge of the previous repair. One trick to determine this, is to hold the jeans against the light, from the inside. Any brighter areas you see then, are already weakened.

In this case, it's just about the entire seat area. So it's of no use to fix the little holes. Rather, at some point it needs to be decided whether it is worth it to put a patch across the whole seat.

Well, at least I think I've got my money's worth out of my sewing machine from repairing this jeans alone!

Unstitch enough of the pocket to be able to fold it down and sew it. I've done it and it's not that difficult to redo the sewing. And with a pair that thrashed, why do you care about getting it to what it originally looks like?

Well, that's an argument I can't counter! So I've now done the repair that way (and patched from the inside across the entire width of the pocket).

Actually, the most difficult thing of all was to make sure that the patch remains evenly spread out while sewing it on.

The result, with the thickest yellow thread I could buy for stitching the pocket back on:

Not perfect, but still better than to risk losing your keys!

Those look crazy, is all that damage real?

Well, some of the fading is from the factory washing (like I said: it's not raw denim), but other than that, yes, it is. The fabric apparently is / has become quite fragile, so I can't wear them for more than about two weeks before they need to be repaired again. (Hence my original question how to make the ageing proceed more slowly rather than quicker.)

My favourite jeans ripped again, this time at one of the pockets:

I could make a hand-sewn repair like I've done a few times before, but I think that wouldn't last too long. Problem is, a sewing machine can't reach this place of course, except after removing the pocket first. But then it's probably difficult to restore the stitching in the way it originally looked (with the thick threads in two different colours). So now, I don't really know what the best solution is.

Any hints?

Hello,

I have a jeans which I really like, but which is very worn out already. Suppose that I still want to keep it in a wearable condition as long as possible. Now of course there are webpages with, for example, washing advice, but they are generally also quite much concerned with preserving the colour / fades. But what if I don't care about that? What is then the best way to take care of jeans?

I hope that one of you denim fans can give some advice about this - thanks in advance!