Mending advice sought!

Hi all!

Both pairs of my favorite everyday pants are starting to fray and develop holes at the inseam. I’m trying to be better at fixing clothes before they develop gaping holes but have also found that I’m a little short of the knowledge of how to repair with more finesse. I was thinking of kind of reweaving the fabric all along in here—is that what you would do? I could also patch on the inside—or maybe do both? Would love your thoughts!

At fabric stores, there is a product called grosgrain tape.  I buy it in white and use it to mend frayed collars.


eBay link

If you can't find that the other product that I would use is bias tape.

Whichever tape you have would be pinned over the frayed area and stitched on both sides.

Depending on the fray the tape might need to be on both sides.

I am not sure how attractive this will be though it will work.

This totally looks like "abrasion" wear to me. The part that sticks up is taking all the "rubbing". Do you have any heavy cotton fabric that is a close, or slightly darker match to the pants? Are there patch pockets on the back that you don't use?

If I was doing this, I would make a paper pattern that mimicked the shape of the pants - it might need to be two pieces with a seam in the center. My son had pants that had more extensive damage right at the crotch seam and I "reproduced" the shape of the pieces that joined there which involved 4 pieces. Once I stitched them in place, the pants looked so good that he was even prepared to wear them to school, rather than just for farm use, so it is possible, and it definitely extends the life of the pants.

There are ways to make a patch into a fashion statement, but this is not the location for that approach!

Because of the shape of my legs, this is a common problem, for me - and I've not found a way to fix it, that I was comfortable wearing in public, other than patching on the inside, and carefully stitching the worn parts to that patch. Then again, Jay's way never occurred to me. My other means of keeping them wearable has always been to turn them into skirts.

The pants have since gone on to have more patches and are no longer for anything but farm use, but here's a photo to show it better:

Hopefully the OP already has the pants fixed. Here I'd like to share a design feature of my hiking pants. The panels between legs serve to reduce the risk of split crotch seams and increase mobility. Maybe it will reduce chaffing on inner thighs too.