Shortening your pants

[katangel]

I love to work with my pants and I dont have a machine.. any tips on fixing up worn holes with out patches and working with them by hand? I dont like to do patches and pins

[Coffee]

Worn out patches are really difficult to fix, simply because, y'know... When an area wears out, it actually means the fabric isn't there anymore.

This causes the problem that if you just sew the edges back together, they'll pucker.

Really... You do need patches for worn out areas. How obvious you want the patches to be, however, is up to you. If you want a really innocuos patch, how would you feel about losing a back pocket and using that?

[duct tape dude!]

Id use a back pocket, the left one, so you can put ur wallet in the right! :)

[friend of mine]

Is it a tear sort of hole?

try this.

1. turn the jeans inside out.
2.hold the sides of the hole together, you ca either trim the white fuzz stuff or leave it
3.using a long length of either thread or embroidery floss do a button stitch or the like
keep if you want flesh or stretch in it when you do the size of the stitches.

if you just don't want to work with sewing which is why you don't want to go with patches, go to Wallmart and buy some quick stitch or wicky stitch or whatever its called. Basically its tape that feels kinda like paper towels, tear to the size you want and using an iron press the fabrics together.

keep in mind the type of fabric you're using to patch, natural fabrics can take a lot of heat but synthetics tend to shrivel up and die. I patched my favorite jeans with some polyester hounds tooth, had the heat on my iron too high and it basically turned into a black and white raisin.

I'll post some pictures later, my favorite jeans need to be patched again.

are they my favorites because of the patches or do i patch them because they're my favorite?

[Coffee]

Id use a back pocket, the left one, so you can put ur wallet in the right! :)

I do that myself, purely for aesthetic and personal reasons - usually at the same time I remove the labels from my jeans.

I've done this recently for some of my older jeans, and I'm personally amazed by the difference in color between the faded and non-faded parts!

Personally, I like removing the left back pocket, simply because I don't use it.

[katangel]

Thanks for the ideas guys. I found a pair of old pants that match the color and cutted out a square piece of the leg and hand sewed it behind the hole to show off the hole yet still keep others from seeing through it. It works!