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How To Mend Bottoms Tear At The Knee By Hand With No Waste Patch

Mend a Tear at the Knee by Hand with No Waste Patch

Step 1: Prepare for the Repair

To mend a tear at the knee by hand with no waste patch, you’ll need a few basic tools and materials. Start by gathering a pair of scissors, a sewing needle, sewing thread, pins, and a seam-ripper (sharp scissors can also work).

scissors and needle

Step 2: Remove the Seams

Begin by removing the seams of the back pocket that you wish to use as a knee patch. Some pockets have asymmetrical shapes; these have one bottom corner slightly lower than the other, which mirrors the other pocket. If you have a preference, keep that in mind when you choose which pocket goes on which knee.

asymmetrical pocket shape

You can undo the seam in different ways:

  • From the front as shown in the photo on the previous step.
  • From between the fabrics, by pulling gently on the pocket seam to reveal the thread underneath.
  • From the inside if the jeans.

Choose whichever works best for you. Consider where is the thread most visible? Where is it easiest to pick up the thread with the ripper or scissors and cut it? Often, alternating is needed.

removing seam

Step 3: Align the Patch

Try to find the grain in the fabrics — the lines that indicate the threads of the woven denim — and align the patch and the leg as much as possible. (The altered picture is from another project.)

grain in fabrics

Step 4: Secure the Patch

Secure the pocket-patch over the damaged knee area by pinning it in place. Thread your needle with a ca 70 cm long thread. Tie a knot at the end; often multiple knots on top of each other are needed to stop the thread from escaping through the fabric.

threading needle

Step 5: Apply the First Stitch

Apply the first stitch by pulling the needle through the fabric from the back of the pocket-patch but above the base jeans fabric. This will ensure that the knot will be safe between the fabrics when the stitching is complete, and also ensure that the knot will not disturb the skin of the user afterwards.

applying first stitch

Step 6: Finish the Stitching

Keep the stitches close to the edge, ideally along the original seam. The tighter/shorter the stitches, the more stable the mend will be. The easiest stitches would probably be running stitches (just up and down, like a dolphin jumping at the surface of the water), or backstitch (10 mm forward, 5 mm back).

finishing stitching

Step 7: Cut the Thread

After stitching along the entire edge of the pocket patch, fasten the thread by doing several small stitches in place, and finish by pulling the needle down from the fastening stitches into the space between the fabric layers, creating a long stitch/dive to hide and secure the end of the thread.

cutting thread

Step 8: Finish the Repair

Lastly, cut the thread along the fabric surface. Finished: mended knee tear with no-waste patch. If you like, you can do the same to the other knee to match the look.

finished repair

Schedule a repair with Salvation Repair at https://salvationrepair.com/repair for a limited lifetime guarantee of all parts and labor.

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