Check out this STRETCHY Knee Patch I came up with for my MOST AWESOME son-in-law! Having tried Duck fabric in the past, only to have it rip again, thinking about it, I decided perhaps good old ‘iron’ polyester double knit with some GIVE might be the solution. So far, the verdict is YES – it’s great. While I now have some ideas for making future mends even better (more on that later), I thought this was worth sharing. Jody has just completed his first of 4 years of carpenter apprenticeship training. It’s GREAT to have a ‘fix-it’ guy in the family. If only the they lived closer to us.
I had to search and search, but I did find a fairly stable – yet with some stretch (what I was looking for) DOUBLE KNIT of POLYESTER at Jo-Ann’s. Here’s a picture of my ‘masterpiece’. This is a DOUBLE LAYER of the double knit, stitched with the greatest stretch (crosswise) side-to-side on the leg. The reason I did that was that I thought the vertical stretch on the knee would likely be the strongest, therefore I wanted the least amount of stretch to go vertical to prevent baggy knee syndrome. I’m not confident that that decision was the best. I’ll have to personally ‘inspect’ the pants I did with this method when I see him the next time and make specific queries. Watch for an update to this blog after August 15 or so.
I took the ‘patch’ completely from inseam to side seam, stitching it just as securely as I possibly could.
Here is my leg in the jean, bent to ‘test’.
And after a few wearings, here is Jody himself, sharing some input and thanks:
Oh – and here’s how handsome (and young) this ‘son’ of ours is! And yes, he IS the BEst. Dad. Ever. to our 2 grandchildre!
IMPROVEMENT IDEAS
I hit myself for not thinking of it on the first 2 pairs, but next time I want to sandwich some batting between the 2 layers of knit and ‘quilt’ it all together with the triple straight stretch stitch. Might yield a bit of padding, and even hold up longer. I did ask about actual knee pads, and he scrunched up his face. Leather patches crossed my mind as well, but there wouldn’t be any give to that…. What do you think?
Have you ever had the challenge of mending for a hard working man? What were your solutions? I’d love to hear them in the Comments below.
Jody will e the best carpenter/handy-man EVER! This is the best job in the world for him and we are SO thrilled! Next, to get dear daughter doing this mending on her own for HER husband with the machine I gave her and DID teach her how to use…..
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