Not having set foot in an office for over four years now, I have become rather dependent on my denim jeans, in fact, they are my standard uniform as a stay-at-home-mother and freelance blogger. Consequently, they get plenty of wear, and to stay true to my green convictions, I’ve become rather a whizz at repairing them when they suffer a rip or tear, as jeans often do when they’ve worn thin over the knee or rear end.

I called on a skill that I learned many years ago from a boyfriend who, unless you actually saw him sewing, you just would not believe had any talent for stitching. But stitch he did, and he mended numerous pairs of my jeans over the years that we were together. Here’s how he did it.

Step 1: Keep a stash of old denim from jeans that are too far gone for repair as your source of patches.
Step 2: Cut a patch from your denim stash that’s big enough to cover the tear with at least 5cm to spare on each side.
Step 3: Turn the jeans that you are about to repair inside out and pin the patch over the tear.
Step 4: Sew (either by hand or by machine) the patch onto the inside of the tear, about 2cm away from the tear itself.
Step 5: Turn the jeans back the right way round. The tear will still be there, but underneath it you will have intact denim to keep breezes out.
Step 6 (optional): If you are working on a sewing machine, you could give the patch some reinforcement and decoration by running either zig-zag or strait stitches across the outside of the tear and patch, across diagonally, vertically or horizontally (or all of the above).

If all else fails and your jeans are destined for the patch stash, buy yourself a new pair of jeans that are as ethical as you are.