So, Patches Saddle-Holes in Jeans?

I expect most of us have a few pairs of jeans folded and no longer worn at home, thanks to those inevitable "blowouts" that come from constant friction with the saddle. Brooks saddles really seem to speed up that process. Some of these jeans can be awfully expensive - does anyone on the Chainlink offer repair services? I don't have a sewing machine and would happily pay for a tidy repair and reinforcement. I'm surprised SWRVE, Levi's, et al don't reinforce the hell out of that... area.

Please let me know if we can do bidnez.

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Permalink Reply by Anne B. on September 17, 2013 at 1:00pm

Anyone have ideas on what to do with jeans that are worn out in this way? I'm guessing thrift stores won't sell them and I feel super guilty throwing them out. And they're not good material to turn into rags. 

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on September 17, 2013 at 1:15pm

I have been told that the Salvation Army recycles clothing that cannot be resold.  I cannot, however, find anything on their web site.

Anne B. said:

Anyone have ideas on what to do with jeans that are worn out in this way? I'm guessing thrift stores won't sell them and I feel super guilty throwing them out. And they're not good material to turn into rags. 

Permalink Reply by Gort 12-mile Pinklegneep on September 17, 2013 at 3:29pm
Yo niall, i have been doing this alteration myself a bit and have worked it out decently i think. We need to go get some drinks anyhow so let's do that and you can give me your pants.
Permalink Reply by Rich S on September 17, 2013 at 4:01pm

Top pick are the shorts. I hardly wear them because of the wear. Within a few weeks it looked like someone left a hot iron on the pants ass! 

These are the pants. It took just a few weeks before they looked like the shorts above. Almost a year of regular use in the colder months wore them out pretty bad. 

Permalink Reply by S on September 17, 2013 at 4:05pm

I think it just shows that repairing clothing is a lot harder and more expensive than making it en mass from rolls of fabric.  The later can be automated.  Repairs take individual care and attention and that requires a skilled person to manually go in and fix things and that'll always cost more than lining things up for a machine to cut and then stitch fabric.

Dirke said:

Chalk it up as a downside of our shifting all clothing manufacturing overseas and expecting a $50 pair of pants to be made with some level of quality.

Permalink Reply by S on September 17, 2013 at 4:09pm

Goodwill's faq explicitly says that "As for items that can’t be sold in our stores, we’ve found other creative uses for them. For instance, some member Goodwills recycle old clothing scraps into industrial wipes (cleaning cloths) for industrial buyers. Other items that are too damaged for retail sales are sold to salvage brokers."  So it'll probably get recycled although I guess you can contact the Chicago office to verify that occurs here.  Plus I think goodwill is a better donation place than the salvation army due to them having better stances in regards to equality and other things.

Lisa Curcio 6.5 mi said:

I have been told that the Salvation Army recycles clothing that cannot be resold.  I cannot, however, find anything on their web site.

Anne B. said:

Anyone have ideas on what to do with jeans that are worn out in this way? I'm guessing thrift stores won't sell them and I feel super guilty throwing them out. And they're not good material to turn into rags. 

Permalink Reply by Emily O on September 17, 2013 at 5:20pm

Perhaps this is different from what every one else experiences, but I tend to get rips on the inside of my thigh, where the thigh hits the saddle. Admittedly, I got this before I biked, but I find biking really speeds up the process. My friends call this 'chub rub'.

Here's what my solution has been:

Step 1: Flip the jeans inside out, sew the rip together. I usually just hand sew it.

Step 2: Cut a piece of spare denim to fit the freshly sewn rip with an extra centimeter or so around each side. With the pants still inside out, sew the makeshift patch of denim over the rip. (I cut my worst jeans every summer to make shorts, so I always have extra denim lying around. But you can use an iron on patch like this and it should work just fine.)

Step 3: For extra protection, sew down the perimeter of the patch. Personally, I think this helps move the tension to a larger area rather than focusing it on one spot. However, I am not an actual seamstress so I could be making that up.

And you're done! If you use thread that's close in color to your jeans, no one really notices, and it makes my jeans last so much longer. 

Permalink Reply by grayn8 on September 18, 2013 at 4:15am
Dang!

Rich you are incredible! Maybe I'm just riding too passively or somehow your funk is stronger than mine (which means something cause my nifkin after a 60 mile ride is mighty funky). I think what I'm learning from this is that something about my riding style or clothes is holding up. But dang! That's crazy fade.

Rich S said:

Top pick are the shorts. I hardly wear them because of the wear. Within a few weeks it looked like someone left a hot iron on the pants ass! 

These are the pants. It took just a few weeks before they looked like the shorts above. Almost a year of regular use in the colder months wore them out pretty bad. 

Permalink Reply by Rich S on September 18, 2013 at 4:58am

Not saying my funk ain't funky but it's the Kuhl stuff that wears out so fast. I have other jeans and shorts that have lasted years with hardly any butt fade. 

grayn8 (5.3 - 36) said:

Dang!

Rich you are incredible! Maybe I'm just riding too passively or somehow your funk is stronger than mine (which means something cause my nifkin after a 60 mile ride is mighty funky). I think what I'm learning from this is that something about my riding style or clothes is holding up. But dang! That's crazy fade.


Permalink Reply by Amanda L on September 18, 2013 at 6:10am

When I worked at Goodwill, our manager told us that the donated clothing we couldn't sell (which was probably the majority of it, actually) went to prisons for cleaning cloths. I suspect that little of our huge pile of useless clothing was salvageable even for that. Clothing is, unfortunately, just wasteful. Recycling puts it out of sight and out of mind, but in all likelihood someone somewhere down the recycling chain will throw it in the trash. 

As a seamstress, the holes in these photos look difficult to fix to me. Patchwork probably wouldn't hold long. If you have some time and a little TV to catch up on, you might try your hand at darning them closed with embroidery thread: http://bandanna-almanac.com/2013/05/24/repair-the-hand-darn/ 

S said:

Goodwill's faq explicitly says that "As for items that can’t be sold in our stores, we’ve found other creative uses for them. For instance, some member Goodwills recycle old clothing scraps into industrial wipes (cleaning cloths) for industrial buyers. Other items that are too damaged for retail sales are sold to salvage brokers."  So it'll probably get recycled although I guess you can contact the Chicago office to verify that occurs here.  Plus I think goodwill is a better donation place than the salvation army due to them having better stances in regards to equality and other things.

Lisa Curcio 6.5 mi said:

I have been told that the Salvation Army recycles clothing that cannot be resold.  I cannot, however, find anything on their web site.

Anne B. said:

Anyone have ideas on what to do with jeans that are worn out in this way? I'm guessing thrift stores won't sell them and I feel super guilty throwing them out. And they're not good material to turn into rags. 

Permalink Reply by Amos Willis on September 20, 2013 at 1:44am
I have use the iron on denim patches on the inside of the jeans when the area starts showing through. It is not a fix, but adds a few more months of life to the pants.
Permalink Reply by igz on September 20, 2013 at 3:55am

iron ons never worked for me.  i had a few of my ridiculously expensive and favorite (diesel, 7) jeans eaten up by a saddle in my, um, saddle area. i did have them fixed, successfully even. i'll post pics later.

but what i noticed is that its exactly the expensive jeans that were getting eaten up. they were of a finer, softer denim. my hearty levi's shown worn spots but held up quite well.

they too eventually wore through, but its much easier parting with $35 jeans than $180 ones. (i know, i was dumb, but they made my ass look good?) never again. 

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