Customising Kids Jeans

It's been a while since I posted anything and I really need to catch up. I've got so much to tell you about. But for now, I thought I'd share a quick little project the biggest girl and I did this week.  

She's got some lovely skinny jeans from Zara, that were passed down to us. They have had lots of wear and the knees are finally giving out.  There's still lots of wear left in these jeans, other than the knees, so we decided to do a quick repair job. 

I had this image pinned on Pinterest for ages and to be honest, was glad of the chance to give it a go.  My girls usually outgrow clothes before they get to the point of needing repair, so this has been my first chance.  

I let Evie choose from a selection of fabrics in my stash, strongly pushing her towards one that amazingly very closely matched the accent fabric already on the jeans.  

Of course, being a 4 year old, the last thing she was going to do, was the thing I wanted her to do, so she chose some Frozen fabric. Of course!  Anyway, it turned into a cute opportunity to have Olaf peeking out from the hole in her jeans, so I wasn't too disappointed.  

For those of you with similarly clumsy kids, that fall often, and therefore get holes in their trousers, here's what I did:

Cut a scrap of fabric, bigger than the hole you want to cover, and cut a piece of bondaweb or similar, to the same size. Before ironing the fabric to the bondaweb, place it over the hole and trace an outline around the hole itself, and cut that middle piece out.  This is because you will want the fabric around the hole to stick to the jeans, but you don't want the fabric that shows through the hole to ge sticky, else you will end up ironing it to the other side of the jeans leg and sticking the leg together!

Next, iron the bondaweb to the fabric scrap. Remember that whereas you normally want the sticky side to be on the reverse of the appliqué fabric, in this case, you want the sticky on the front, so that it sticks to the reverse of the jeans, with the right side showing through the hole. 

Make sense so far? Still with me?

I then cut around the fabric so that it was patch shaped, with no corners (I find these are the bits that start peeling off first)

At this point, I noticed that the other knee was about to get a hole soon, so I made a little patch to reinforce that from behind too.  I didn't cut a hole in the middle of that one because the jeans are still just about in tact at that point and I wanted the glue over the weak point, to hold them together a bit longer.  I'm hoping that as the jeans wear out on that other knee, Elsa and Anna will start to show through!  

Peel the paper backing of your new patches and iron them on to your jeans, as per the instructions on your bondaweb/vliesofix.  

Turn the jeans the right way out and voilà, the hole is patched from the reverse and in this case, there's a cheeky little Olaf peeking through.   

The bondaweb should be strong enough that you can stop right there, especially if you got the strong stuff, but I fancied adding a bit of extra detail, as per the origional inspiration.  

Luckily, these jeans already had some decorative stitch details, and I had embroidery thread to match. 

So I just made a few cross stitches around the hole, which echo the features already on the jeans, and hold the patch in place a bit more.   This part was fiddly, since these are age 4 skinny jeans and therefore quite narrow. There was lots of turning inside/rightside out and muttering under my breath, but I really like the end result. 

More importantly, Evie loves it!

I secretly can't wait for Anna and Elsa to start poking through the other knee. And that won't be long, because I made the stupid mistake of telling Evie that's what will happen, so of course she's constantly picking at it, trying to get the hole open!!

Have you got any creative ways of getting more wear of your kids clothes? I'd love to hear about them.