Child, teenager or adult, every one of us has put a hole in our trousers more than once. 😞
Whether you are playing a sport or simply walking around town, you are never safe from tripping and landing on your knees. Which risks (1) hurting you and (2) putting a hole in your trousers or joggers (the double whammy 😧).
Since we cannot heal your injuries, in this tutorial we are going to explain how you can patch up the hole in any garment on a small budget thanks to heat-transfer vinyl!
First of all, we are going to clarify what heat-transfer vinyl is and then we will explain how to patch up a hole in your trousers with this material. ✅
An introduction to heat-transfer vinyl
To keep it simple, heat-transfer vinyl is the material used to create flocked prints on textiles. 👕
Let's take an example you will surely relate to:
When professional footballers play on the pitch, each of them wears a shirt with their name and number on the back so they can be easily recognised.
Well, the flocking on the back of football players' shirts is made using a roll of heat-transfer vinyl that has been cut beforehand.
The Aix en Provence Soccer Club football club for example personalises its team's shirts with our heat-transfer vinyl!
As its name suggests, the vinyl is "heat-transfer", meaning it sticks to any type of textile thanks to heat (around 150°C).
Heat-transfer vinyl is sold in roll form and comes in different types such as glitter vinyl, velvet vinyl or even 3D vinyl. These vinyls can all be used to personalise clothing.
Since we want to repair a hole in trousers, in our case we are going to use velvet heat-transfer vinyl, which has a good thickness and will therefore be perfect for patching up the hole. 👍
Repairing the holed trousers with heat-transfer vinyl
The accessories you need to repair your holed trousers 👖:
To repair your trousers, you will need:
- Some holed trousers (in our case, we are going to use a pair of joggers.)
- Some velvet heat-transfer vinyl (to patch up the hole in the trousers)
- An iron (to apply the heat-transfer vinyl onto the trousers)
- A sheet of baking paper (to protect the trousers from the heat)
5 steps to patch up your trousers with heat-transfer vinyl
Follow these 5 simple steps to repair the hole in your trousers:
1️⃣ - Prepare your workspace:
When we go to apply the heat-transfer vinyl onto the trousers, the iron will need to heat up to 150°C. 🌡️
So make sure to place your holed trousers in a safe environment, keeping all flammable objects well away.
You can for example place the trousers on an ironing board, which will be perfect for this kind of handling.
If you are using a standard table, use a surface to protect it from the heat (in our case, we are using an ironing board).
2️⃣ - Position the sheet of baking paper inside your trousers:
Take your sheet of baking paper and slip it inside your trousers, placing it just below the hole in your trousers.
The sheet of baking paper is essential, because it stops the heat-transfer vinyl from sticking to the inner part of the trousers, which would risk making them unusable.
3️⃣ - Cut a piece of heat-transfer vinyl:
Take your scissors and cut the velvet heat-transfer vinyl into whatever shape you want.
⚠️ Important: The shape you cut must absolutely be bigger than the hole in the trousers. (about 3cm extra on each side)
Since the hole is located on the knee, we are going to cut an oval shape so that the result looks like a knee patch.
To cut the velvet heat-transfer vinyl into the perfect shape, you can also use a cutting machine like the Silhouette Cameo 5, which is ideal for cutting heat-transfer vinyl to personalise your clothes with flocking.
Once your velvet vinyl is properly cut, position the design over the hole. As mentioned earlier, it is important to make sure that the heat-transfer vinyl completely covers the hole.
Then take a second sheet of baking paper and place it over the vinyl. This sheet will help protect your trousers from the heat. ♨️
4️⃣ - Preheat your iron:
Preheat your iron to 150°C. This is the ideal temperature for the heat-transfer vinyl to adhere to the fabric and withstand machine washing.
If your iron does not show the exact temperature in degrees, set the iron's dial to polyester or wool.
5️⃣ - Press the iron firmly onto the fabric:
Once your iron is hot and your velvet heat-transfer vinyl completely covers the hole in the trousers, press your iron firmly onto the trousers for 20 seconds so that the heat-transfer vinyl soaks into the fibres of the fabric.
6️⃣ - Remove the clear backing from the vinyl:
After applying the vinyl, wait for 30 seconds so that the heat dissipates, then gently remove the clear backing. You will then reveal your beautifully restored trousers, looking as good as new. ✨
7️⃣ - Press the design one last time:
Last step! To make sure that the velvet heat-transfer vinyl holds through every wash, reposition the sheet of baking paper over it and press again for 15 seconds.
8️⃣ - Your trousers are repaired:
You can be proud of yourself, because you have managed to repair the hole in your trousers simply by using heat-transfer vinyl! 😀
The difference in colour between the velvet vinyl and the trousers is still visible, but it is entirely possible to make the same knee patch on the other side of the trousers for a better look when worn.
If you have holed trousers that you want to repair with heat-transfer vinyl, do not hesitate to order our velvet heat-transfer vinyl, available in a wide range of 12 different colours.
Our heat-transfer vinyls have been tested and approved to hold through more than 60 machine washes. 💪
To repair a hole in a garment, you will need the roll in the 30cm x 50cm size for just 4.5 euros.
On top of learning how to repair a hole in your trousers, this article has also got you familiar with the method of printing flocking onto textiles using heat-transfer vinyl!
You now indeed know how to apply heat-transfer vinyl onto a garment. 😏
Heat-transfer vinyl printing is used to personalise football shirts and is also adopted by renowned clothing brands such as Nike, Fila, Under Armour, and many others.
If you would like to learn how to personalise your own clothes with flocking and perhaps one day create your own clothing brand, we warmly invite you to read our guide that will explain how to personalise your own clothes with heat-transfer vinyl.
