Denim therapy given to jeans repaired by mom and resuscitated
Then vs Now
This post was originally written in 2018, during our first year offering denim alterations at Williamsburg Garment Company. At that time, we were still learning and getting better with each repair through trial and error. Today, our denim therapy process is far more refined: we fully remove damaged fabric, add new denim reinforcement, and apply repair stitching engineered for long-term wear. What you’ll see in this post reflects an early chapter—not our current standard.
By Maurice Malone Published August 5, 2018 (updated December 13, 2025)
This post goes back to 2018, during the early days of Williamsburg Garment Company offering denim alterations and repairs. At the time, we were still finding our footing in what would later become our core specialty: professional denim repair. Looking back, it’s interesting—and honestly a little humbling—to see how far our techniques and standards have evolved.
A customer brought in a pair of jeans that were on their last legs. The crotch had blown out, and before giving up on them entirely, his mom stepped in with the best intentions and a needle. Her solution was hand darning the holes using bright red yarn. It worked in the most basic sense—the jeans stayed together—but it also turned the repairs into something you couldn’t ignore. Functionally saved, visually… not so much.
At the time, this was a perfect example of what we called denim therapy. The jeans weren’t just damaged physically; they were suffering from well-meaning DIY repairs that had pushed them right to the edge of embarrassment. Our goal back then was to stabilize the fabric, reinforce the blown-out areas, and make the jeans wearable again. We didn’t yet have the systems, time allowances, or experience to fully cut out the damaged sections and replace them with fresh denim panels the way we would today. As a result, some of the red yarn from the original repair was left in place.
That’s an important distinction for anyone reading this post now. In 2025, we would never leave those repairs as-is. Today, our approach to denim therapy is far more thorough. We would completely remove the damaged fabric, eliminate any previous hand darning, add new denim of similar weight and character, and reinforce the area with repair stitching designed to stretch and move with the jeans. What you see in these photos reflects where we were in our first year of denim repair—not where we are now.
Even so, this early repair still illustrates why professional denim repair matters. Home fixes, tutorials, and quick patches can sometimes hold things together, but they often create bigger problems down the road. Proper denim therapy isn’t about hiding damage or doing the fastest fix—it’s about restoring structure, longevity, and wearability so a pair of jeans can keep going.
If you’re dealing with blown-out jeans today, the good news is that our denim therapy has come a long way since 2018. What started as basic reinforcement has evolved into a refined repair process built around cutting, replacing, reinforcing, and preserving the character of the denim. Your jeans don’t have to limp along with visible emergency fixes—they can be properly restored and ready for many more years of wear.
