The perfect pair of jeans is like a unicorn - rare, spectacular, and elusive. When you find ‘em, you shouldn’t let them go...even if they rip.
How to Repair a Hole in Your Jeans with Professor Pincushion
For this week’s Curious 52 Challenge, I learned how to repair a hole in my jeans. Because my jean collection is actually in good shape, I put out an office-wide call to see if any Curious employees needed theirs stitched up.
Kristen brought in her favorite pair of jeans from college, and to work I went.
Although Professor Pincushion’s lesson uses a sewing machine for the zigzag stitch, I decided to sew by hand - like many of you may. To adapt the stitch, I rewatched the “Sewing” section a couple times to figure out the anatomy of the stitch.
It was simple to recreate -- just think of the machine zigzag stitch as the “perfect” version of what you can do by hand.
Remember - denim is pretty forgiving. Don’t be afraid to make some small mistakes!
To set up, I threaded my needle, and knotted it at the end. I started off my row by threading the needle through the inside of the pant leg, so the tied end was hidden. Then I zigzagged away!
Tips for all you hand-sewers:
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Be careful that your fabric scrap doesn’t double under while you’re sewing, so you accidentally stitch through 3 layers instead of two. This happened to me!
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Make sure that when you’re pulling the needle through, your excess thread doesn’t get knotted on itself - I encountered this issue more than once and had to start all over
- Handle the edges of the hole delicately - if you don’t, the fabric may fray further and make your hole bigger
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The finished product.
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A close-up.
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This challenge rekindled my love for sewing - I haven’t had a needle in hand since 3rd grade! Maybe a sewing machine purchase is in my future.
Happy sewing!
