Repair Work: Covering holes with patches taken to a whole new level

My best friend gave me the brown pants shown on the left. They had been previously loved and luckily for me she was ready to give them up. I wore those pants once and they were awesome. I began wearing those pants weekly and soon after holes began to appear in the areas that the designer created permanent (and fashionable) wrinkles on. I tried darning, but it looked odd. I wanted to patch, but the holes were in strange spots for patching (several very near to the crotch and no one really wants to draw attention to that). I set them aside until I could develop a plan and then, inspiration hit… I was reading 99 Ways to Cut, Sew & Deck Out Your Denim and the #2 design featuring jeans with appliques looked like the impetus I needed to get started on my next project. Now, I needed to hunt down some funky fabric. Appliques are really similar to patches, but in my case I’m making them, much larger. The my inspiration design trimmed the bottom of the pant legs off and created some cuffs with really funky fabric that I loved. I decided to make large appliques/patches on the front of both pant legs to cover the holes and add the cuffs to the bottom to balance out the overall look and feel of my soon to be refashioned pants. Next, I dug through my clothes bins and scrap piles looking for something as jazzy as what I saw on the inspiration project; no luck. I then proceeded to drool over fabrics online and I am particularly in love with Amy Butler prints, but reminded myself that buying new fabric sort of defeats the purpose. So, I headed off to Goodwill in search of a fabulous cast-off frock with a funky pattern in cotton that I could use. I happened upon an amazing fabric pattern that was pretty Butleresque and was used to create one of the most hideous nighties I had ever seen, so I wouldn’t even mind chopping it up. So off I went and here’s how to DIY:

You’ll need:

pinking shears or scissors (pinking shears help stop the fabric from unraveling, but if you don’t have any, just use scissors)

fabric for applique/cuffs

pins, needle, thread

DIY:

1. Cut the fabric a little larger than the area you want to cover with the pinking shears. Pin the fabric on and stitch around the outside of your design. *design note: you can use plain fabric and embroider a design onto your applique/patch instead of patterned material. You can also reverse applique a design instead.
2. Cut off the bottom hem of your pants. Measure the width of the new hem and multiply x2. Determine how wide you would like your cuff to be and multiply x2 (I wanted 2″ cuffs, so I needed fabric 4″ wide). Add .5 to each measurement for seam allowance. Use these measurements to cut your new cuff fabric.
3. Fold your fabric in half  lengthwise and join the ends to form a tube. Sew along the overlap to create a fabric cuff that you can slip onto your new hem.
4. Pull the pant leg through the fabric tube (cuff) with the raw edge of the cuff meeting the raw edge of the hem. Pin and sew into place.
5. Pull the cuff down to cover the raw edge and then fold up to form a cuff. My fabric is very lightweight so I needed to put a little stay stitch in the center of each cuff to prevent them from flopping over when I walk. If you use a stiff fabric you can skip this step, if not, just put a discreet, little stitch into each cuff to help them keep their shape.
6. Love your funky new pants!

I’ve just finished up this project, but haven’t finished the photos yet; I’ll have them uploaded soon. Enjoy!

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