By Yarn and Needlework Contributor Stephanie from the blog Twilly 23
I’m a beginner gardener and recently ripped the knee of my gardening pants while moving a raised bed. Instead of a fabric patch. I decided it would be fun to experiment while mending this rip. This tutorial will teach you how to make a monster patch for those pesky holes.
CRAFT:
Sewing
DIFFICULTY:
Beginner
MATERIALS:
- Sewing Machine
- (or) Hand sewing needle
- Sewing thread
- Felt
- Button
- Fabric marker
- Scissors
- Pins
- Clothing that needs mending
TUTORIAL:
Clean the garment before starting to mend. My gardening pants were covered in dirt so I washed them before putting them anywhere near my sewing machine.
Felt works great for patching because it is strong. I used red for the mouth and white and black for the eyes.
Using a fabric marker, trace a button onto the white felt for the eyes.
As you cut out your shapes look for scrap felt with pointy edges. These will make great fangs. If they don’t naturally point the way you want, you can cut out any shape you prefer.
You can trace a smaller button onto the black for the pupils. Since black doesn’t show the marker I just freehanded small circles.
Cut out a shape that not only covers the tear but gives a wider margin of felt around the opening.
Pin felt onto clothing and sew into place.
Alternatively, you can use a sewing machine to patch your pants. This is trickier because pant legs don’t have much wiggle room underneath the needle. However, it goes so much faster.
After sewing the red felt around the tear, position the eyes above the red mouth and sew into place.
I didn’t measure when sewing down the eyes. Like I say when teaching my monster classes: There’s no wrong way to make a monster!
Trim around the tear to make it wider. This will emphasize the mouth shape.
Sew down the edge of the torn pants to the red felt using a zig zag stitch. I did two layers of zig zag, one narrow and one wide. This makes the mouth look like it’s lined with small teeth.
Before sewing down the bottom tear, slide in the felt fangs you made earlier.
After sewing, clip loose threads.
This patch almost makes me look forward to my next tear. Craft on!

Absolutely brilliant and thanks for the idea, I shall be doing it soon.
Thank you Della! Let us know how it looks.