The Boulevard of Broken Jeans - The Unit 2 Repair Thread
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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.
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@JoshC Really enjoyed watching that!
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@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.
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Amazing work. Good to know my jeans can last a loooong time.
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Gotta give props to Josh on my recent repairs and the overall level of customer service coming from IHUK. I sent in some SBGs and a chambray. The repairs came back great. Fixed the pocket bags, crotch, and hem cuff lines on the SBGs and a blown out elbow on the chambray. All the work is top notch. There was also a strange customs issue with the return shipping and IH took care of it no problem.
Clearly it's less than ideal logistically and environmentally to send repairs from US to UK and back, but should you find yourself in need with no other good option at hand, Josh and team do great work.
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One of a handful repairs on my 666 XHS 25oz and I imagine the most difficult. Turned out really good.
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@JoshC Very nice thread ! only falling on this today. Video was very cool
Impressed by the repairs on some of the blown out crotches that looked not fixable in my naive eyes
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@Slash cheers mate appreciate that.
@northsouthdenimguy It was definitely an interesting one for me, glad your happy with it.
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Definitely very impressed. I know that’s a tough repair. It’s also a good lesson not to use a too small brass Japanese fish hook for your keys. They look great, but they can really chew up the top of a denim pocket over time.
