Your Belt Loop Ripped? How to Repair Ripped Pants, Including Holes

With a skill comes the expectation that the skill will be used for the benefit of those in close proximity.

You can go ahead and quote me on that!

My dad asked me to mend some ripped pants for him.  At first, I really didn’t want to say yes.  I didn’t want to become the family member that is given all ragged clothes.  However, upon looking at the holes in question, I thought it would be a pretty quick fix, and my dad has done a lot for me over the years, and I’m helpful by nature, and, and, and. 

I took the pants, and I mended the pants.  I even took photos of each step so you can also mend as needed.  Here is a super quick tutorial for you.  For more details- go check out this tutorial on mending a damaged quilt.  It’s all basically the same info, but with more step by step details and photos.

How to Repair Ripped Pants

Now, these shorts were mended previously.

Repairing a Small Hole

Small holes are (hopefully) easier to repair than large tears, so I always start there.  Easy first, work your way up to the hard stuff.  It builds confidence and skills developed on easy tasks can be applied and modified for more complicated tasks.

Cut a patch of similarly colored fabric.  Both the shorts and the pants that needed to be mended were khakis, although not exactly the same color of khaki, so I cut a scrap off of a pair of khaki pants that were in the giveaway pile.

Pin the patch on the INSIDE of pants to be repaired.  These are small holes after all, no need to have the patch on the outside.

Because the repairs made previously to these shorts (near the back pockets) had been done with a zig-zag approach, that’s what I used here too.

Start on one side of the hole, use a small stitch length and sew straight line.   Keep the needle down, slightly adjust the angle of stitching, and back stitch to the opposite side of the hole.  Continue stitching and backstitching, with slight changes in angle, until you have reached the far side of the hole.

Pull the threads through to the inside of the pants, knot and trim.

Small hole number one is patched!

There were two small holes near each other, so I used one patch, mended them both and then took the pins out.

This next photo shows the two small holes covered by the patch from the inside.

Trim excess patch fabric away, leaving a small seam allowance.

Fixing small holes is easy.

Repairing a Large Hole

Repairing a larger hole is really no tougher than the small holes you have already mastered.

Place the patch on the inside, sew all the way around and then go back and zig zag through as in the previous steps.  Trim away excess patch fabric as before.

Repairing larger tears is pretty easy too, isn’t it?

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Fixing a Belt Loop

The second pair of khakis to be mended didn’t have any holes, just a tear at the top and the bottom of a belt loop.  Now, I think once a belt loop is ripped, it’s time for the pants to go to the giveaway box.  But that’s just me, and my dad wanted to continue wearing these, so I fixed the belt loop too.

I started by place a patch (again, on the inside of the pants) behind the belt loop, and stitched around the area to be mended.

The tearing near the bottom of the belt loop was tearing of the pants, not the belt loop, so I did the same zig zag stitching and backstitching as in earlier steps.

I did multiple stitches across the top of the belt loop as well, although did not zig zag, just did straight lines.

I’m not 100% convinced the belt loop repair is going to hold.  No more hitching your pants up by the loops, Dad.  But, given the proximity of belt loops to the next, I think it will hold the weight of the belt.

Now, can we talk about how women’s pants don’t have belt loops nearly that close together?  Why?  WHY????

The pants have been repaired and are back to be worn another day.  Just don’t expect me to mend everything.  Sometimes it’s just time to buy a new pair.