I guess ripping the rear end of your jeans isn’t a new thing. What’s new is throwing those ripped jeans in the trash can.  My grandmother would cringe if she knew some of the things I used to throw away.

But these days, I am learning to “Make it Do” and that means learning to mend.

Mending is not only good for your pocket book, it’s also good for the environment.

Here’s a few tips on how to mend jeans:

Just like in to picture above, my husband ripped his jeans right along the back pocket.

I bought a few patches at Walmart. (They come in several different colors.)

I trimmed off all the frayed edges.

I cut a patch to fit over the rip, carefully lined up the torn edges and ironed the patch into place.

Use a color of thread that closely matches the color of your garment.  Zigzag over the seam to secure it into place.  (Otherwise the patch will eventually fall off.)

These pants look pretty darn good.  I don’t think he will be wearing them out on the town any more… but he will definitely be wearing them to work in the yard or camping or even when he goes out shooting trap with his buddies.

This is just a basic mending job… but what about getting creative?  You can turn pants with torn knees into shorts, or make them stylish by patching them with a wonderful fabric.  Take a look back at my post about turning a plain tee shirt into something fancy… that same technique can be used to hide a patch or even a stain.  It’s very satisfying to rescue something that was on it’s way to the garbage.  And I bet my grandma would be proud of me.

Use it up, Wear it out, Make it Do, or Do without.

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