One of the very first things I pinned on Pinterest when I joined was this image of a monster patch. It’s from a Dutch blog, and I thought (and still think) that it was brilliant! I wish I had thought of that. Marieke inspired me to finally, once and for all, start mending those jeans. For tweens, patches are not cool at all. Luckily, my girls gave me the thumbs up on these.
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Marieke’s tutorial is in Dutch, but her pictures are pretty good at showing you the steps. Just trim the hole so that there are no frayed edges. Next, cut a colored piece of fabric twice as big as the hole. I used some old t-shirts thinking that the stretchiness would work well on the knees. Then I cut out teeth from white felt
Sometimes, it feels good to just get something done. Cross it off the list. Thank you for the inspiration, Marieke!
xo, Bar
Hi Bar,
I love your version of the Monster Knee Patches, Monsters for girls! They look so cool 🙂
xo Marieke
Veel bedankt! Dat is zo aardig. (my parents are Dutch!) I’m glad you like my version, but I still love yours the best. Thanks again for inspiring me! xo
Hi, I made something similar but I used felt and sewed around that…. unfortunately mine came off…. I may try the t shirt material. I think it broke because the felt had no give to it. It also came loose in the wash. 🙂 Yours look very good.
Try again. Actually, my first patch came off, too. I didn’t trim the frayed edges of the hole enough. You have to make the patch a lot larger than the hole. I also sewed around the hole twice the second time. Good luck!
So so so cute! I can’t wait for my kids to ruin their pants now! Thanks for the post!
http://thisfineday.com/
Thanks Rebecca…I can see the future and torn pants are definitely happening 🙂
Thanks for sharing these. What a fab idea!
Love these found it via pinterest, very cool. x
thanks tracey!!! and welcome to the blog 🙂
Boys can pull this off too, can’t they?
nancy, of course!!! my son’s jeans are now in the “mend” pile, but he’s bugging me daily to get the monsters done. he’s 7.
Hello, “monster patch” is a super idea. I’d love to publish it on my blog zuzununudefteri.com with a link to your site if it’s ok for you. Best wishes:))
yes of course you can publish it with a link. thank you arzu!! xo bar
You’re my hero! Doing this on jeans for Teens. SO awesome.
Oh my! I teach tiny people Kindermusik in jeans every day and the knees are always the first to go! And there I was thinking I’d have to go buy new ones! The kids are going to love my monster jeans!
perfect use for monster patches, marina! then the monsters can tell the tiny people to settle down in their monster voice, ha! xo bar
This is so much fun. I am totally going to give it a try, my son has holes in most of his jeans!
thanks kelly! my kids love wearing their monster jeans because literally every friend at school says “did your mom make those?”. some day they won’t want to be asked that question, ha! but for now it’s cool. good luck! xo bar
My son has so many pants with torn knees!
Hi! I think you did such a cute version of these! I included them in a little round up on Facebook. I hope that is OK!? Please just say that word if you would prefer that they weren’t shared but, I’ll cross fingers! /G
of course gina! i am honored and thrilled to be in a willow day round-up!! can’t wait to see! xo bar
Does the felt hold up after washing? This looks absolutely great!
Hi Rachel, yes! these jeans were washed many many times, and now they are in a box for *someday* grandchildren! thanks for leaving a comments. xo bar
This is just genius. Sadly the dutch lady’s site seems to have a broken link so it’s wonderful you have pictures on yours. Totally going to try this with my little one’s pants. Wonderful!
oh no! i don’t know what happened to her link, bummer. i’ll try and recover that. meanwhile…i’m so glad you clicked over Cheryl! Let me know how it goes with the patches 🙂 xo bar
I was totally interested in these until I saw the words YOLO used in one of the prop photos!!!!!!!
DO YOU REALIZE WHAT KIDS CONSIDER THAT?
……I dont even know why you would use that term…GOOGLE it please..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YOLO_%28motto%29
I’m not sure if this is real or not since you put your name as anonymous, but YOLO means “you only live once”, it’s sort of the “carpe diem” of the youth generation. In my opinion, I see nothing wrong with the kids living in the moment! I asked my teen if she knew of any other offensive definition, and she had no idea. She did say it’s sort of out now (this post is from a few years ago). If I offended you, i’m sorry.
You’re absolutely right Barbara. It’s very much an “Instagram generation” pop culture slang that is so harmless it’s ridiculous that anyone would be offended.
THANK YOU cheryl. i needed this, that comment was so weird. and they didn’t leave their name, so it was hard to tell if they were serious. i could have deleted it, but then…i wouldn’t have had your lovely, rational comment backing me up!! xo bar
What a great idea, it is so fantastic, I have to share this on my blog 🙂
thank you natasa!! i appreciate the share and your blog is very beautiful…I especially love the little circles on your homepage! 🙂 xo bar
How fun! I always love making creative patches for our worn clothing. My children (and I 😉 ) enjoy wearing them, too. They will be all for this, I’m sure. 🙂
I think this is adorable. My daughter has a bunch of ripped jeans and I didn’t want her to wear them to school. As soon as I fix them up, we’ll both love them for school. Haha!! Thank you!
I loved when my girls wore these jeans. They are now in their keepsake box, as this was about 3 years ago. It makes me sad to think they have outgrown monster patches 🙁 Now I’ll just have to wait for grandchildren! Thanks for leaving a comment, Joanna. I hope the mending goes well! xo Bar
Regarding getting inside the pant leg:
Remove stitching on the side seam above and below the knee. The outside leg seam is generally not topstitched. After patches are all sewn securely, restitch the seam. This trick works for leggings, too.
hi Lorna, thank you for this tip, it’s a good one! I never thought of opening up the seam, that is just brilliant. xo bar
This looks amazing!!!
Hi, which material did you use or which one do you recommend for the patch? thanks
hi kissadri, I think I mention the material in the post. It was written long ago, but I do believe it’s in there. we used felt!
Your monster patch is looking very cute. I ll try something like this in my home. I am sure my cousins definitely like this
Hey Barbara ,
You monster patches look stunning and give new life to old jeans. Especially these monster looks charming on kids clothes. Pink and green both color combinations look lucrative. Good Job I adore your artwork.
This is the only way I will allow my nuts 12-year-old cut the holes in her jeans! I honestly hope she agrees 🙂