By the seat of his pants (repair)

 In our family, we get a lot of wear-and-tear on the inside thighs of our jeans.  Perhaps everyone does, but bicycle riding I'm sure enhances it.

Holes on the inside thigh aren't all that visible, but I guess they're visible enough that we don't want them to get too big.  The good part of that location is that patches there aren't too visible, either; a patch not only keeps our skin from showing, but it also helps to prevent further ripping.

So here's me, patching my husband's jeans. 

To the left, a rip.  To the right, a previous rip that's been patched. 
I certainly could have used a patch that was closer to the same color as the jeans!

I use scraps of fabric leftover from sacrificial jeans that out-lived their usefulness.  Having a stash of denim on hand is so handy!

Jeans with a pinned patch from the correct side (left) 
and inside out (right).

I pin the patch fabric to the inside of the jeans, and also pin down the edges of the rip. (The lighter side of this patch matches the color of the jeans a lot better than the dark side!)  It's good to use a lot of pins; the patch and jeans move around a lot when I stick them in the sewing machine, and having the patch well-pinned helps to prevent bunching or awkward folds.

Then comes the sewing.  A zigzag stitch holds down frayed ends.  If the fabric nearby is also getting weak, sometimes I'll sew across it in several lines nearby, kind of like quilting the jeans to the patch.  Then I sew down a circle around the hole for the edges of the patch.  

I love using my sewing machine!

When I'm done with sewing, I turn the pants inside out and trim the edges of the patch with pinking shears (to prevent fraying).  I'm constantly nervous that I'll cut the jeans instead of just the excess patch material, but so far I never have!  Phew!

Also, pinking shears are wonderful.  
(I drew the zig-zags on the handles with a sharpie,
 so I could more easily tell them from my regular sewing scissors).

And then, done! This takes me, I dunno, 10-15 minutes?  Certainly faster than shopping for another pair of jeans, and definitely much less expensive.  

Behold the repaired jeans! There's a bit of a "scar" still, 
but it's still a satisfying patch.