Paean to iron-on patches from the 1970s

Over at Craft: Online, Cathy Callahan writes about iron-on patches from the 1970s, taking special note of their packaging design.

Pictured above are a few packages of iron-on patches I found at my mom's house. I actually think she might have used the drawing on that Sturdy Brand package as a style guide for the way she dressed me. There are pictures of me dressed in almost that exact same outfit. I absolutely adore the graphic design, color palette, and illustrations. Wouldn't you just love to walk into Jo-Ann's today and see a whole rack of packages that looked like these?
I am actually kind of fascinated by the Plasti-Stitch corduroy patches. Were they meant to blend in seamlessly and look like you never had a hole in your pants? Or could you go wild and do a little mixing and matching? Perhaps you could tone down your plaid pants a bit by adding a little gray corduroy patch. The back of the package lists purple, olive green, maroo,n and gold as other available colors. Wow!
Let's take a closer look at the Touch O' Magic package: "Use on new jeans for longer wear..." I love their approach to "preventative" patching. But why not wait until you actually have a hole? And isn't the very nature of denim its strength? Iron-on patch sales must have been down in 1968, so those folks at Sandrew, Inc. (makers of Touch O' Magic) of Streetsboro, Ohio, had to come up with new ways to sell their product.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

MORE: Down Home

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

noldrin

I thought the idea of patches on my jeans was cool till my mom put them on the inside of my jeans, what the heck?

In other news, jeans were a lot more durable when they were made out of hemp.
Chainring

My mom ironed patches onto the insides of new jeans when I was a kid. No problem until you wore and washed the jeans a few times and the outline of the patch became evident as a faded ring. Consider also that she folded all my jeans so that there was a crease down the middle of each leg (like you would fold dress pants), reveled in finding “deals” on irregular t-shirts, and bought dress shirts more suitable to a retiree than an adolescent, and you begin to get some idea of why I never quite fit in at my very upper-middle class schools.

… not all my mother’s fault. I was a nerd to begin with, but the clothes didn’t help.
stratosfyr

I wish someone had patched my jeans when I was a kid. I just went around with big ol’ holes in my knees like a sucker.
jimh

@chainring: This was my story too. Which was a little misguided of mom, since I was much more likely to come home with paper cuts from the library than with a hole ripped in the knee of my jeans.
LB

My family probably kept these people in business through the 80′s.
Falcon_Seven

@18 – My mom would iron the patches on the outside of everything with legs longer than shorts for myself and my two brothers. Always very fashionable.
saint_al

Iron-on patches didn’t breathe like fabric- they made me sweat directly behind the patch area.
Those rubbery, glittery iron-on T-Shirt transfers like the ones Roach sold had the same effect. Yick.

“Whatever happened to white dog poo?”
This topic merits BoingBoing attention!
aeon

Ah, nostalgia for a 1970′s childhood. Garish nylon clothes, non-breathable raincoats, patched jeans and the freedom to roam. When are we going to start the “Whatever happened to white dog poo?” discussion?
Takuan

remember iron-on tattoos and nicotine patches?
Jack

I actually liked these patches. They also lasted longer than sewn patches.
eclectro

Let’s not forget that corduroy patches were used on similar corduroy jackets of the era, whether they had holes in the elbow joint or not. As having the patches on the jacket was considered pretty fashionable. I think they still sell the jacketw with the patches on them pre-installed.

#7 @ Roast Beef – no adhesive patch I am aware of will withstand the couple of heavy wear areas a jean has. Rather than going the patch route, you might pick up a heavy duty canvas sewing awl at harbor freight tools and the matching heavy thread at a fabric store and make a longer lasting repair that way. We certainly live in the days where it pays to be thrifty!
Halloween Jack

Good grief, I remember these things. About as good-looking and long-lasting as using a piece of duct tape.
radio_commercials

nothing like making it look like your clothes need fixing, when they dont. Soon we will really need them. Stock up now!
Anonymous

If you want to put rips and frays in your jeans (warning, if you remember doing this the first time around in the late 1980′s, you are too old for it), you can iron a patch on underneath to prevent putting your foot through the ripped and frayed spot.

I’m too old for it.
Gilbert Wham

You do realise that the fact we remember the 1970′s means we’re officially old?
JoshP

Thinking of those retro-fads coming back to all their perky, pedulant, popularity make me want to shoot myself in the head… But not just with any gun… No.. One of those big, manly guns that Clint would have used in those movies he filmed in San Fran… yeah… Do me Harry… ;\
Ernunnos

It’s not a bad idea to put them on before you get holes in the knees. Once you patch a hole, your knee ends up rubbing against the stiff, scratchy patch.

Ah, the things you learn growing up in the ’70s.
Anonymous

Those damned things always fell off on my jeans….
zuzu

OMG, I totally had those patches on my jeans when I was maybe 8 years old. (Thanks mom!) I’d completely forgotten that detail of my childhood until now.
RevelryByNight

Streesboro, eh? You don’t say. . .

I grew up in the next town. Back then the ‘Boro was a stretch of swamp land with a few factories on the horizon.

It’s nice to know there were some touches of color on that gray horizon, after all.

(now, of course, it’s just a bunch of walmart, home depot hideousness, but the swamp’s still there)
caitifty

Never mind the patches, check out the device for sliding down stair rails depicted on the patch kit on the right! Can you *imagine* some company selling something that much fun, with that much potential for liability lawsuits these days?
reginald

there are people who can repair anything in my town.
but i love the practicality and independence of the original patch/post.
Roast Beef

I am here to tell you that the adhesive on these patches does not last through twenty-seven years stored in a cookie tin. Unfortunately, for I am in need of some serious patchage.

I wish my denim was stronger. I always bust through the knees and up in the crotchal area. I used to think it was my habit of buying $20 jeans at Target. Then, I bit and bought some $70 jeans from a denim company whose name rhymes with Schmevi. One year later, these jeans are rapidly returning to their component parts, starting at the “areas of instability” (to quote a favorite line from my iron-on path package). Next time, I’ll go for the $20 jeans, if this is all the wear I can expect out of the pricier kind.
kaosmonkey

And don’t forget to apply a couple to the elbows of your corduroy jacket!
BJN

The word is “preventive” until we start preventating stuff.
mdh

Roast Beef – three words – Duluth Trading Company.

They will keep up with you, and they’re crochitals are very well designed to minimize binding.
dbarak

70s? Oh…

I still use these on my Armani pants…
Roast Beef

MDH–thanks for the tip! Am checking out their denim styles right now.
JoshP

@MDH
Nods on Duluth Trading Cmp, also for hard usage, get ahold of cotton ripstop fatigue pants. This for newbohemes who haven’t had the exquisite pleasure of owning a pair of cut-off ripstops. Stay away from the ’twill’ weave. Look for cross-hatching. I’ve owned aexercise shorts for a decade made from this stuff. Mega bonus if you can find them in tiger stripe or an eastern europe camouflage pattern.
chriziem

Oh, this has brought on a cascade of horrible memories. My mother ironed these to the insides and outsides of cheap polyester jeans and pants, new or worn. When we complained about the discomfort, ugliness or social suicide of it all, we were given stern lectures about the expense and trouble of raising ungrateful children. Is it any wonder that when we were liberated from parental control we celebrated with an explosion of natural fabrics, 501′s, peekaboo knees and rainbow patches? It’s that quick-fix, better-living-through-chemistry aesthetic, so prevalent in post WWII America, which spawned many small rebellions of which the Make movement is the latest flowering. Although to be fair, those iron-on patches did make awesome embellishment material when liberated from their utilitarian function.
Maddy

I love patching jeans. I was always embarrased withi new jeans, but felt great when I put the first grass stain on them. And I used to love to see them unravel, knowing I would get to patch them. When Kurt & grunge brought this trend back I was so excited. I still have my jeans patched with other pieces of clothing that are going south. I’ve decided to continue to do it, trends be damned …
jimh

LOL these bring back unfortunate memories.
When I was a kid, my mother used to iron on these big patches on the knees of my brand new jeans. On the INSIDE. The brand new toughskins were stiff enough to stand up by themselves (no pre-washing), and once the patches were added it made me walk like a robot with big square knees.
Jack

@#6 POSTED BY CAITIFTY:
It’s not It’s a “device for sliding down stair rails.” It’s called a “see saw.”
Grumblefish

I remember in the UK we used to have these light-reflective patches – “safeshines” – that your mother could iron onto your coat to make patterns. And supposedly keep you from being run over by cars.

I wasn’t run over by a car, so I can’t say for sure they didn’t work.
jimh

And the little girl on the see-saw appears to be screaming in terror!
mutagen

In fourth grade I had a pair of green corduroy pants with purple knee patches my mom had ironed on. At some point my fourth grade teacher complimented me on my pants and having no other fashion reference they became my favorite pants.

We moved in the middle of the school year and so I picked those pants out for the first day of at my new school. My new teacher sat me down next to a kid named Brian and had him show me what was going on in class and at the new school.

When fifth grade started I was assigned to a new school and Brian was the first kid I recognized. We became lifelong friends and to this day I can say green and purple and he’ll know what I’m talking about.
Anonymous

My friends and I would “decorate” our pants with these in junior high — what dorks!