How to Upcycle Jeans by Adding Patches • Heather Handmade

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Learn how to upcycle jeans by adding lots of iron-on patches. This no-sew project makes jeans look embroidered with whatever style you like.

My daughters were shopping for back to school with some friends and fell in love with some fruit embroidered shorts. They came home and told me all about them. We decided to try to make our own with some iron-on patches.

We went online and looked through a couple of different patch pack options. Once they arrived and we got the patches ironed on, we all loved how the shorts turned out. My girls can’t wait to wear them once school starts!

What jeans does this work with?

If you use small patches, you can add patches to any type of jeans. If you use large patches, the patches will limit some of the stretch so they will work best with loose or wide leg jeans that don’t need to stretch.

We used tiny patches and both of the jeans we used were stretch denim, but because the patches were so small it didn’t affect the stretch of the fabric.

This is a fabulous way to cover up some stains or tiny holes on a pair of jeans!

What patches can I use?

You can use any patches that you want! There are so many fun iron on patch sets that you can apply to jeans. We used these fruit patches*, but there are also flower patches*, letter patches*, and heart patches*.

Can I use sew on patches?

Yes! You absolutely can use sew on patches and sew them on. I would recommend you use them on shorts or wide leg jeans because it gets really hard to sew patches onto legs of jeans. It’s hard to access the front and back of legs to sew them without opening a side seam.

Love to Sew? Try one of these sewing projects:

How to Add Patches to Jeans for an Embroidered Look

Supplies

Jeans you want to change (jeans with stains or holes you want to cover!)
Iron on patches
- Large patches for non-stretch jeans and small patches for stretch jeans
- fruit patches*, flower patches*, letter patches*, heart patches*, etc
Small iron*
Ironing board or felt ironing pad*

Instructions

Get your iron-on patches and decide which patches you are going to use. Turn on your iron so it starts heating up.

Play with the placement and design of the jeans. Cover the stains and holes of your jeans if that is your goal.

Iron each patch on in the place you want. I did the highest setting on my Cricut iron (about 300 degrees) and pressed for 30 seconds on the front and 30 seconds on the back.

This is the longest part of the process since each patch takes a combined minute of pressing.

Let the patches cool. Check all the edges of the patch by pulling up with your fingernail. If there are any sections that aren’t completely fused, press the patch again.