5 Ways to Fix Ripped Jeans: A DIY Guide (with Video Tutorials) 2

How to Fix Ripped Jeans: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ripped jeans are a popular fashion trend, but when they get too damaged, they can be annoying. If you have a pair of ripped jeans that you love, don’t throw them away! You can fix them and enjoy them a bit longer.

And, if you are a parent, you know that the little members of the family like to destroy the knee area of their pants. If you are like me, perhaps you want to give the jeans a bit more life as you don’t want to buy new pairs every time this happens. Especially knowing that they outgrow them so fast.

There are different ways to fix ripped jeans, and most of them are beginner-friendly.

In this blog post, I’ll show you five different ways to fix ripped jeans, with video tutorials to help you get started.

5 Ways to Fix Ripped Jeans

Unlike other common repairs like hems and fixing zippers, mending rips in jeans is a creative task that can be approached in many ways. You can use embroidery over the rip, a patch under, darn the place, replace the fabric, or one of my favorites – use textile glue to fix a patch in place.

The patching can also be done with creativity: by using lace or contrasting fabrics, or by shaping the patch like a flower for example, or like a favorite animal.

In this tutorial, we’ll stick to the basics. Once you get the basics, you can get creative when fixing torn jeans.

Method 1: Textile Glue

This is probably the most beginner-friendly way to fix ripped jeans – you can use fabric glue to attach the patches and skip all the sewing. This is how we have repaired most pairs of ripped jeans lately in our sewing studio. That’s because gluing looks clean and professional. On top of that, it is just as durable a solution as sewing (if you use a good fabric glue).

Here is how to do it.

Method 2: Darning

Here I show how to patch jeans by darning. Darning is a sewing technique for repairing holes or worn areas in fabric by sewing over the damaged area. I use it often and especially on jeans – to repair ripped pockets or fix torn jeans between the legs.

The example below is me darning on the knee area with supportive patches.

Method 3 and 4: Patches Under or over the Hole

This option is pretty much the same as the one above. Before attaching the applique over the rip, I usually darn over the worn-off fabric for extra durability.

Method 5: Replacing the Whole Knee Area

Here is another video on how to fix torn jeans. This alteration works well when the rip is at the knees. You can follow the same steps to fix torn knees on leggings and knit pants, too. It works out fine quite often IMO and you can use some decorative stitching or contrast patches to add a nice effect. I like to repair the torn like this when I’d rather not have any rip left on the jeans.

Which Method Should You Choose?

No matter which method you choose, fixing ripped jeans is a great way to save money and extend the life of your favorite pair of pants. With a little bit of time and effort, you can easily repair your ripped jeans and make them look (almost) as good as new.

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More sewing tutorials:

1. Fix a hole in jeans between the legs
2. How To Take In The Waist On Jeans – Step-by-step
3. How to enlarge jeans at the waist and hips
4. How to keep the original hem on jeans (2 options)
5. How to replace a zipper on jeans