Making patches for holey jeans

A Challenge

Karen challenged us to finish our to dos sews for this week and she is going to track me down until I'm done with my list :o) So each day I'm going to show you the progress I made...

This is my to sew list for this week:

1. Mend my boys' jeans

2. Turn jeans with toooooo many or tooooo big holes into shorts

3. Finish my Jelly Roll (Race) Quilt that I started in London.

This is my progress on #1

How to make homemade denim patches:

Lay out a pair of holey jeans and cut a sheet of paper to the desired size of the patch.

Glue the paper patch...

on to the left side of a piece of denim that is a bit larger than the paper patch.

Cut the edges but leave a seam allowance of approx. 1/2''

I used the English Paper Piecing Technique Tacha taught us in London and here's how I secured the edges in place: Thread a handstitching needle with some bright contrasting thread (you can use some of your leftovers). Make a knot. Fold over one side of the denim patch to the back. Insert the needle at the corner from the front to the back and pull until you reached the knot.  

Fold over the second side of the denim. Insert needle in the same corner from the back side and pull through.

Take the next corner, repeat. This is how it should look like after you did 3 corners.

And this is how it should look like after you secured all the corners. Now give it a good hot press with your iron.

Next time we are going to embellish the patch (optional)

Happy Sewing!

Christine