Entropy

[JR.]

I got my iron-on blue jean patches today and they appear to work. First I had to find the on switch for my iron that hasn't been plugged in for decades. Apparently it has a thermal cut out that trips if run without water. That thermal cut out has to be reset for the iron to turn on.

I doubled up patches on the inside and outside of the pants leg repair. The pair of jeans with only one small hole was easy, one patch outside, and one inside...

The pair with one leg pretty much blown out, took ten patches... I ran out of the same color light blue so that one has two different color blue patches, but that's all good.

The real test will be to see how these hold up after a few cycles of yard work and through the washing machine.

I think I figured out why the same pant leg is tearing up in all my jeans... Looking at the inside of the pant legs shows abrasion, probably from my toenails... Trimming my toenails, by myself at my age, and with my bad knee is not trivial. The left leg with all the tears, is the first one that gets my foot pushed through... I already have my socks on, but that is not enough to protect the pants legs. Now that I grok what is going on I can try to be more careful with that process.

JR

PS: I'm reminded why housewives hate ironing after only a few minutes over a hot iron....

[mediatechnology]

The pair with one leg pretty much blown out, took ten patches... I ran out of the same color light blue so that one has two different color blue patches, but that's all good.

You may start a fashion trend with jeans that look like a patchwork quilt.

My grandmother made quilts and I have a lot of them.
She saved just about every scrap of fabric that's ever been in this house - three generations have lived here.
Going through her old boxes of fabric I see pieces that came from a lot of my old clothes I wore as a kid and clothes that my parents wore.
It's amazing after all these years to see a piece of fabric and think: "I remember that pair of pajamas."

[JR.]

today I gave my patched up blue jeans a trial by fire out in the yard... (burning pine tree limbs that fell wed during the tornado watch).

Two of the six patches on the worst case repair started to peel away after a few hours of typical yard work.

I am willing to write this off to pilot error... The instructions warned against using too much heat, suggesting use of a teflon sheet. Today I hit my peeling patches with the hot iron again and they look like they may hold.

We'll see...

JR

[mediatechnology]

If the patches don't work -
I've started buying clothes online directly from Carhartt, Lee and Wrangler.
Carhartt has excellent T-shirts and outerwear.
Direct-from-the-manufacturer has worked out really well.

[JR.]

I can find jeans on line, but I felt that the half-life for new pairs was getting too short, and all the shredding was on the same leg. At least from this exercise I determined the source of abrasion (my left foot's toenails) so I expect less shredding going forward.

The two patches that were separating, and I reheated, did not hold for a second day... one held and the other got worse. My post mortem determined that dirt had worked its way in behind the top patch and degraded the adhesive. Last night I rough cleaned the area and attached a new patch for the loose one, this time using adequate heat.

Next I will run these through the washing machine and see what happens... When I run out of patches this experiment will be over... I started with 20 patches but I am now down to only a handful.

JR

PS: I now have three different color patches on that one leg.

[terkio]

Next I will run these through the washing machine and see what happens... When I run out of patches this experiment will be over... I started with 20 patches but I am now down to only a handful.

JR

I doubt iron on patches can stand much gardening work and machine washing, I would draw the sewing machine at them.

[mediatechnology]

My goal was to go direct-to-the-manufacturer and cut out the middlemen Amazon, Wal*Mart etc.
There also seems to be less inventory variation in terms of availability going direct - you can buy shorts in the winter for example.

I recall as a kid we briefly tried iron-on patches and they didn't work well.
Fortunately there were two seamstresses in my family.

[JR.]

Next I will run these through the washing machine and see what happens... When I run out of patches this experiment will be over... I started with 20 patches but I am now down to only a handful.

JR

I doubt iron on patches can stand much gardening work and machine washing, I would draw the sewing machine at them.

The first washing machine, dryer cycle reveals that the first round of patches are not going to survive. I will repeat with the iron set for hotter temp...

I was pleasantly surprised to have my own iron, I do not own a sewing machine.

I consider this experiment already a success since I learned what was causing the pants to shred and how to stop/reduce that (trim my toenails).

JR

[JR.]

My goal was to go direct-to-the-manufacturer and cut out the middlemen Amazon, Wal*Mart etc.
There also seems to be less inventory variation in terms of availability going direct - you can buy shorts in the winter for example.

I recall as a kid we briefly tried iron-on patches and they didn't work well.
Fortunately there were two seamstresses in my family.

Just for chuckles I just went to the wrangler website to price check my most recent blue jean purchase (wrangler from Amazon)...

The prices were very similar... oddly they had less size options, the pair of Wranglers I ordered from Amazon was 34x31, The website did not offer the 31" L option, only 30" or 32".

The website offers 15% discount for orders > $49 if I let them send me promotional emails, free shipping for orders >$100.....

I didn't check out the other sources, but not compelling (to me)...

JR

[mediatechnology]

If you wear T-shirts do look at the Carhartt K-87.
They seem to last longer than any other T-shirt.
The el-cheapo T-shirts always seem to develop holes at the top pocket corners.

BTW for your garden tool supplies check out Gempler's.