Embroidery Repair on Old Jeans

These are my boyfriend's old jeans. The patches in the medium shade were a repair Guy made and then the center (knee) ripped out. So I put a piece of dark stretch denim behind it and basted it by hand to hold it in place. Now I'm doing embroidery over it. But because the iron on patches are so thick I have to use the punch method which is slow and hard on the fingers. If it had been plain worn denim I could have just used a running stitch all from the front side. Stopping for the night before my fingers get too sore.

Starting the embroidery.

This isn't just a repair project, it is an art project. I wanted to do the initial 'under patch' on my sewing machine, but it is hopelessly buried. After delaying for months, I finally decided to just do it by hand. I hope I can do a bit each day until I am done. They will have an archery theme, since he makes arrows.
And I'm sure he'd like to have his favorite jeans back. The hardest thing for me is to not make them look too girly.

Double running stitch.