Another thing I want to do during my downtime

[annathepiper]

I am under no circumstances Fashion Girl. I have a certain type of shirt and pants and shorts I'll wear pretty much all the time, generally accompanied by sweatshirt and hat. The closest attention I'll pay to this clothing is to make sure that the colors don't hideously clash and that everything has been recently washed.

You would expect therefore that I don't spend much money on clothing. You would be correct.

But here's the thing: I have several cheap pairs of pants bought from Target that have begun to wear through (or in some cases worn completely through) on the inner thigh because I walk a lot. This of course renders these pants unsuitable for wearing to work. In the interests of being frugal (not only due to the countrywide economic crisis and brouhaha but also because of my own personal medical crap), I'd like to take a stab at repairing these pants.

What are my options, O Mighty LJ Font of Knowledge? The ideal result of this experiment would be repairs that are reasonably non-obvious and which mean that the pants are still comfortable to walk in. Thanks in advance, folks!

Comments

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

A lot depends on how badly they're worn through. If they're just starting to get thin, you can apply a patch to the inside, but if the wear is bad, it will depend on being able to get fabric of the same color.

[annathepiper]

Some of the pairs of pants in question have pretty worn spots, yeah, and would require big patches. But in general the correct thing to do here would be 'iron-on or sew-on patches', assuming as close a color match as possible?

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The trick is to put them on the inside of the fabric, not the outside.

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

Oh, but I can attest as to how badly both options suck.

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Iron-on patches?

[annathepiper]

That's what I was thinking, yeah, but what concerns me about that is the likelihood that such patches would not be comfortable for walking in.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

They're really really not. I can tell you this from personal experience. They rub the auld thighs raw, they do. :p

[annathepiper]

Okay! Well, that's out then!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Inner thigh patches, in my experience, are almost never comfortable and rarely last for long. In fact, I had that discussion with my mom, who is an extremely talented seamstress, not all that long ago, because I'd blown out a thigh on a pair of jeans and was trying to figure out if I could fix it. She pretty much said that between the short-termed effectiveness and the discomfort, it wasn't worth trying.

I think to get something that would last and be moderately comfortable you'd have to replace the entire worn area with matching fabric by way of cutting out the worn-out material and sewing in new. But even if you're very careful that's still going to leave seams that are not going to be comfy for walking. It's just a really hard place to patch well.

[annathepiper]

Grf. Yeah, I think I'd heard before that this would be a difficult type of repair to make--at least, in terms of making it worth my time.

I'm not a good enough seamstress to go down the route of 'swap out the entire section of cloth', I fear. That would only work for one of these pairs of pants anyway since I have an older pair (with the same problem) that are a match in color and style to the newer pair. None of the other pairs match anything else; if they did, I'd consider whether creative mixing and matching of color could be accomplished. Though probably by someone who doesn't suck at sewing. *^_^*;;

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

What they said. These pants may need to be retired to house-cleaning and gardening, if they're decent enough.

[annathepiper]

Grf, I was suspecting this was going to be the case. Oh well. They were (mostly) cheap Target pants anyway, I suppose I will have to go in for another round of cheap Target pants. :)

[ramurphy.livejournal.com]

Catie's mother-the-talented-seamstress here. It ain't worth it. Iron-on patches work reasonably okay on the knees of jeans kids are going to outgrow in the next month. Sewn-in patches will look like sewn-in patches, even if you're a brilliant sewer. Patches work all right on the elbows of good-quality tweed jackets or wool shirts, provided they're carefully done.

If you have an exact match for color and fabric, and you want to take the time, you can take the pants apart and cut and seam a long triangle-shaped piece from crotch to well below the current wear spots on both the front of the leg and the back of the leg. I wouldn't bother. It'll still look like a patch.

A better idea is to go to Value Village or some other thrift store and buy some inexpensive trousers to wear.

[annathepiper]

Greetings! Thanks for chiming in, I appreciate your input a lot. :)

Yeah, it looks like I'll just have to suck it up and buy another round of cheap pants--maybe using these pants as source material in case the new ones have to be patched at some point. I'm not a seamstress by any stretch of the imagination, so any patches I'd attempt would be pretty effing obvious.

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

You could go for the riding breeches look:
http://www.brightriver.com.cn/pic/20060906152150.jpg
http://www.kyron-sport.de/produkte/tamy50hm.jpg

But otherwise ... I'd either cut the legs off and turn them into shorts for around the house/working in the yard, with the legs used as matching fabric for the inner thighs - and since house and yard only, the walking thing wouldn't be such a bother ... or turn them into rags. You can never have too many rags. (Especially in a house with cats ... no, don't vomit on THAT!! Ugh!!)

[annathepiper]

Heh, somebody with more sewing fu than I have would have to tackle that first option... though I have enough material with these various pairs of pants that it could possibly be done. I definitely don't have the sewing fu for it under normal circumstances, and especially not right now on the pain meds. *^_^*;;

But we'll see... I think I'll wind up getting another round of cheap pants anyway and perhaps I could experiment on these and learn something!