How to Sew a Hole or Tear in Jeans by Hand

Take a pair of sharp scissors and cut off every loose thread hanging in and around the tear. Pull off any fluff sitting on the surface of the denim too. Anything unravelled has no strength left in it, so it has to go.

What you are after is two clean edges of denim that meet neatly. Stop there. Do not cut into fabric that is still sound, because the stitches need that firm denim to hold onto later.

Find a scrap of sturdy woven fabric. Cotton canvas is what the creator uses. It should be strong and not stretchy, but not so thick that it feels bulky, because it stays inside the jeans against your leg.

Cut a rectangle that covers the tear with a good margin on every side, about the size of a playing card for a thumb-length slit. Pick a colour close to your jeans. The yellow in the video is only there so the camera can see it.

Push the patch in through the leg opening and work it round to sit behind the tear. Smooth it flat with your fingers from the outside until you can see the patch through the opening and it covers the whole tear with margin all round.

You can pin it through the denim so it cannot shift. The creator skips the pins, and the patch ends up a little off centre. It still covers the tear, so it still works, but pins make the next steps calmer.

Use a polyester thread that matches the jeans. Polyester is strong, and a dark blue vanishes against dark denim. Cut a piece about as long as your arm. That is enough to finish the repair without the thread tangling on every pull.

Tie a knot in one end. Feed the other end through the eye of a hand sewing needle that will push through denim without bending. A needle threader makes this part quick.

Hold the jeans with one hand inside the leg, under the patch. That way you feel the needle point and know at once if it goes through to the back of the jeans, which is the one thing you never want.

Take the needle in and out of the patch alone, then bring it up through the denim at one end of the tear. The knot ends up hidden on the inside. Before you pull tight, look once more that the patch still covers the whole tear.

Go down through the denim on one side of the tear, pick up a small bite of the patch underneath, then come up through the denim on the other side. That is one whip stitch. Do it again, and again, all the way along the tear.

Keep the stitches close together. Closer means stronger. Aim a few threads in from the frayed edge, because the very edge is the weakest denim. And only ever catch the patch, never the fabric at the back of the leg.

At the far end there will be a small pucker where the denim bunches. Put a stitch or two right at the end to flatten it. Then turn around and whip stitch back along the same seam to where you started.

Two passes is the minimum. The creator does three, and says three or four is best on a thigh or knee that takes strain. Every pass adds more thread over the top of the join, so the repair gets stronger and lies flatter at the same time.

Push the needle into the denim so the point sits on the inside and the needle is parked. Turn the jeans inside out. Bring the needle up through the denim and the patch at the end of the repair.

Take a small stitch through the patch and pull until only a small loop is left. Pass the needle through that loop and pull tight. Do the same once more. Two of these loop knots hold. Then snip the thread close to the knot.

With fabric scissors, cut away the spare patch. Leave about one centimetre of fabric all the way around the stitching. Less than that and the edge may fray back to the stitches over time.

Turn the jeans right side out and press the repair from the front and the back with an iron. If the patch edge rubs against your skin, tack it down with a little iron-on fabric adhesive so it lies flat against the denim.