Patches for knees of school trousers

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

So ds1 now has a hole in the left knee of 2 out of his 3 pairs of school trousers. There's nothing wrong with the rest of them and they still fit well so I want to patch them up.

How's best to do it, and where on earth sells patches?

I was wondering if it might be worth sacrificing the worst pair and using them to provide patches for the next few pairs of school trousers - if I do this, how's best to do it??

It depends on how old he is. If he's old enough to be a laughing stock then I wouldn't repair them, you could cut them off and make them into shorts for the summer though. You can buy stuff that hems it, it's like glue and you iron it to make it melt.

He's just turned 5, and is in reception.

Do you think I'd be wasting my time trying to repair them?

No, 5's OK. You can use an old pair. The easiest way is to attach the patches with fabric glue. They will look odd though, your best bet is to chop the bottoms off and turn them into shorts for the summer.

I remember something about taking off patch pockets and using them as knee patches?

Hang on, will search...

Here it is

Does depend on your willingness to sew, though.

I'm amazed how hard on trouser knees boys are. DS is only 2.9 and I've already mended 4 pairs at the knee.

Been having this thought myself, and thinking guiltily that trousers are so cheap at the supermarket that it's not worth the faff

Brilliant - thanks for that Lastyearsmodel!

I'm willing, but not very able when it comes to sewing but it's got to be worth a try!

In the sewing section of supermarkets there are iron on patching materials, which you put behind the fabric, pull the material together, and it does a good job of disguising the tear. I use it all the time! You can cut the material to fit, rather than use a whole patch.

OK, off to Tesco in the morning before I try the fiddly sewing solution - thanks for that!

Yes, I heartily agree with following one's own sliding scale of arsedness vs make-do-and-mend.

I am hand sewing name labels into all DD1's school clothes. By the time I get to DS then DD2 I can see it will be biro scribbled on inside labels.

I find its less obvious if the (iron-on) patch is on the inside, not the outside. They come in different colours as well, grey, blue and black.

School trousers are so cheap nowadays, I've never bothered, I just buy new.

You can see where they have been mended and it does look a bit scruffy, it just dosen't seem worth making them a bullying target.

I have however mended a coat that got a bit ripped, but you really couldn't see that and obviously it was a lot more than the few pounds a pair of trousers is.

I think you can get a pair of boys trousers in asda,tesco etc for about 3 or 4 quid so it seems a bit too much hassle to patch an area like knees. I do hem them with the ironing tape or if any seams come apart i repair them but you cant see these areas and i would imagine it would show you had patched a knee?

Shorts and long socks. Knees heal, trousers don't

I'm going to give the iron-on solution a try.

Yes I know that trousers aren't extortionate prics, but it seems so wasteful when he's only had them for 1 term, and not worn them for all of that (he started off in shrts until nearly half term).

Do you really think it would make him a bullying target skydance?