How to patch jeans (so they look cool still:)

Do you have this problem??  I always thought I got lucky and my boy didn't get holes in his jeans.  That is until this year.  When he was littler he would outgrow his pants before they got holes.  Now he is 5 and this year he had ONE pair of jeans that didn't have holes and that was because I had just bought them. (that pair happen to get a hole while I was in the process of fixing all these ones up...so they got fixed up too)

 I had first tried sewing in patches behind the holes.  I kind of think it looks cool and not so patched looking.  Like the hole is supposed to be there.  But if you have every tried sewing on a pant leg you know it is pretty near impossible.  I just couldn't get to the hole.  So I gave up.  Then I started thinking about ironing on a patch with some wonder under.  I once ironed on an applique to a shirt and never sewed around the edges and it held up in the wash so I wondered if it would work.  The patch ironed on but once my boy wore them all the bending and moving that goes on at the knee just made it come loose.  So I was back at square one.

 In came the glue.  I have never used fabric glue before and I was a little skeptical.  I found this in the glue section at Joanns.  They have so many different kinds and I wasn't sure what to choose.  I probably stood there for 10 minutes reading the backs of all of them.  I think this one was around $6-7.

So I cut out a nice oval of fabric that I thought went with the pants.  I tried to match some of them.  I used all different kinds of fabric.  The navy blue is just some thicker pinstriped fabric I had. The light gray is thinner knit that I sewed two layers together and sewed lines evenly spaced across it to give it more visual detail. The light blue is a herringbone denim.  And the darker gray is a pinstriped wool.  All the fabric I already had in my stash.  

Sorry, no picture tutorial but all I did was spread glue all around the backside of the oval.  I first squeezed it on around the edge and then zigzagged the middle.  Then I used my finger to spread it all over so every surface was covered.  Then I positioned it where I wanted it and smoothed and pressed down.  I made sure I smoothed over all of it and especially the edges.  Then I put my hand on the inside to make sure glue didn't come through the hole (especially since my holes were so big).  I ended up putting a plastic bag inside while it dried just to make sure it didn't glue the legs together.  

 After it was dry they were ready for wear.  The patches are a little stiff but so far they have held up in the wash and seem to soften a little when washed.  The edges have frayed just a little but I don't mind that look. The knit won't fray but it also isn't as strong a material as the other ones.  He hasn't worn the ones I patched with the knit yet.  I figure they will last until he outgrows them (which 3 of the pairs he practically has already).

Now we have a nice new pile of jeans to wear.  His newest pair that just got a hole only got one in one knee but I just went ahead and put the patch on the other knee as well.  He now has one of a kind jeans with great visual details and character.  I think it looks like the patches are supposed to be there.  So go patch your kids jeans and get some more wear out of them.  You don't want to buy new ones when it will be short weather soon!