The Boulevard of Broken Jeans - The Unit 2 Repair Thread

[JoshC]

With the new belt loop machine, it was finally time for me to have a play and put it to the test, as this repair needed 3 new belt loops, here is a little sneak peak of one of those belt loops getting replaced.

[Jakederoche]

@JoshC that looks very cool! Lots of character! Beautiful!

[JoshC]

Hey Legends, Happy Friday! I have been playing around with the idea of doing a little filming segment or a mini-series on repairs and hemming. This is a very rough go on my phone, sorting out a crotch blowout, so please be kind with me, haha. Feedback would be appreciated, and it would be interesting to see what you guys think if it is something you would like to see more of.

I'll move the camera to a position so you can see what is happening while I am darning.

[Karol]

@JoshC Awesome!!!

[goosehd]

@JoshC F'n awesome and thank you for doing this!! I love to see how you guys work your wizardry and look forward to more videos.

[JoshC]

Cheers @Karol and @goosehd, yeah I think it could be quite fun to do, but also educational especially if you ever want to try and repair your jeans yourself can use some of these as a guide in a way.

[Karol]

@JoshC Absolutley man! But its also such a leson to receive the stuff that was repaired by you. I love the repairs on my IH-888S-21

[JoshC]

@Karol cheers dude, means a lot, so thank you.

[AdamJ]

@JoshC nice one mate

[goosehd]

@JoshC The thing I learned from your video is that you don't have to trim the fibres around the hole as much as I thought. It looks as if the repair captures most of the strays and incorporates them back into the former tear/hole.

Is there any trimming needed if the fibres are too long/excessive? If so, do you trim pre repair or wait until after and trim then?

[JoshC]

@goosehd there can be times where I need to trim it back where it has become abit wild, but if you can flatten some of the broken fabric, you will find you can darn over it and helps make it look abit more invisible as it almost closes the hole back up.

[IH-GARY]

@JoshC The Master at Work! That was fabulous to watch - your confidence and skill in your work make you come across as a natural in front of the camera! I hope you can find the time in your busy days to make more of these video insights - I could watch them all day! Cheers!

[JoshC]

@IH-GARY thanks mate, definitely something I would like to do and have a few ideas, and with the team helping with certain repairs etc it should make these video more of a possibility.

[Lynne]

@JoshC Great video - more, more!

[JoshC]

@Lynne haha thanks Lynne, maybe we should do a duet video, special guest segment haha

[jtaylor69]

@JoshC you make it look dead easy! a video alternating between the two angles will be good, top down and also from the front.

[jonpwn]

wow holy guacamole what an amazing thread!! @JoshC beautiful work!! The cone on the Singer looks like so much fun to work on. I'm still fiddling with a reverse switch!

Some questions for you if ya don't mind

-how many shades of blue thread do you have besides the two in your video?
-the cotton you use for patches, is that the same cotton fabric used for IH Pockets?
-regarding patches, do you find that they help prevent tears from spreading further down from the holes you repair? As you can see in my photos below, the warp keeps breaking further down the length after each repair reinforces a section. I don't use patches, but maybe I should..

Here are my 888's. All DIY repairs but i've definitely learned a few things from your repairs that i'll have to try next. Never thought about following the twist of the yarns to make the repair blend in, i've always gone perpindicular to the weft. On one hand it's kind of my signature repair look, on the other it's starting to be very noticeable. Only recently did I get a second spool of baby blue thread to help hide the repairs.

[m4xime]

@JoshC Really enjoyed watching that!

[JoshC]

@jonpwn Ooh, we have a few different blues. From what I can see and use fairly regularly, I have six different blues in rotation at the moment, going from a pale ice blue to an electric blue and navy. The one I'm using in the video is my most used blue, as it has a slight grey popping through it, which helps blend it for many different fading stages.

No, so the fabric I use for the patching is lighter. I prefer to use a lighter fabric in general compared to something thicker, especially if the patching fabric is heavier than the fabric itself. It can cause denim to bobble out, and it doesn't look great. In my opinion, the lightweight fabric is just there for an extra piece of reinforcement. They definitely help, but it doesn't make it indestructible, and again, using something too thick along with darning can cause more strain on the denim around the affected area, so I prefer to use something a little bit lighter. If you catch the hole early enough, you don't need to, but if there's a clear breakage or the denim is super thin, then it's worth using a patch.

I do go perpendicular in some cases, especially for big knee repair repairs, as I have done for a previous repair, which is pictured up top. It is hard at times when choosing which thread to use because if the denim hasn't faded much. You have a lot of that deep indigo still in place. You could go for a navy that would blend in nicely, but with age and time, the jeans will still fade, but the thread used won't, so you can end up with a dark navy repair job with nice faded-out jeans, same if you go light on dark jeans you may be stuck with a clashing of light and dark until it fades into the denim, if this makes sense.

[JoshC]

Iron Klaus has a helper in the workshop today with @Freeman sorting out an old patch we had spare from an unusable pair of relove jeans for a customer on his worn-in pair.