Sometimes by the time you start to mend, the whole garment has started to fail. or perhaps it is just that my threshold for deciding a garment is no longer suitable for work is higher than some other people’s! I mended my gardening jeans a while back… and they ripped again above the patch. This is an argument for a bigger patch to begin with, but time travel is complicated. So I mended the jeans again.
I guess I mended them 9 months ago. Not all bad. And there is a reason my favourite jeans have been relegated to the garden. Anyway… I decided to just extend the patch. I ripped out the simple side seam (–not the flat felled one with all that lovely top stitching), ripped the old patch off the inside on the side I needed to extend the patch, ripped the seam joining the part of the patch that shows to the jeans, and stitched a new patch onto the old one. Rippity schmippity!
There didn’t seem much point in fussing over making this look chic. First thing that will happen once it’s done is that I will kneel in the glorious earth. One of the things I love about having gardening jeans is that I can relish those moments and not shrink from them, thinking of all the times my lovely mother told me not to get my clothes dirty. So, a whimsical egg shaped patch it is on the outside.
Stitched! I am so happy to have my machine back. Sorry about the indoor mood lighting.
Then, a neatish rectangle, more or less, on the inside.
And we’re done.
Sure enough, here I am coming in from weeding and clearing and planting and repotting! I can’t be letting my favourite jeans go just yet…
Local & Bespoke 
Huh. So you put your patches on the *inside* of the hole, do you? I’ve always done it the other way, with the patch on the outside. Is there an advantage to doing it your way, or is it just a matter of taste?
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Exactly: the patch is on the inside. I don’t think the other way is problematic. I think I mostly do it this way because Mum did. I like it and I find it neat. I guess it could be less obtrusive because less of the patch shows. But only if you make a little effort! This two tone example sure sticks out!
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Ah, a fellow mender. Many people think I’m cracked mending old worn clothes but I love the process and result. And I sometimes try and explain to often deaf ears.
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I, too, enjoy the process and result. I’m delighted to discover a fellow traveller!
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and have you ever followed http://tomofholland.com/category/darning/ ? This guy is way over the top and amazing. Not sure I could emulate him but he certainly ups the ante!!
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Absolutely! I think Tom of Holland is amazing. I loved his International Women’s Day post.
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I love your egg patch!! Many of my clothes are now held together by patches, although none as elegant as yours. My dear dog like to show her affection when I am gardening by leaping on my back, so alongside knee patches, much of my mending is on the upper back of my shirts. It is a continual process, where some clothes that are too far gone, or grown out of by kids go in the scrap drawer to become rags or patches. I am guessing at some point in the future all of our non-uniform garments will be entirely patchwork 🙂
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Patchwork is one of the wonders of the world. Yours sound amazing. I found myself thinking fondly of a pair of jeans I had in the eighties as I was mending… cheap to begin with and eventually patched all the way from hip to hem at the front! You sound like you might need a leather patch on your upper back, Lucy…
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