Back in the"Day", everyone I knew who rode tubulars, and that was EVERYONE, patched their inner tubes with a piece of inner tube from a dead tire. We didn't buy patches, we also used a piece of tire casing for a boot when there was a tear instead of just a puncture, there was also a small tube of black rubber that you used on the tread of the tire to fill up small rips or holes, I haven't seen that stuff for ages.
I'll be up front about this, a lot of people are afraid of patching tubulars, it kept me in pocket change in the 60's. What I will say about patching tubulars is, cut as few threads as possible, pretend you are a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon doing an appendix on a starlet, you will be surprised how much inner tube you can wheedle out of a tire, use a sharp needle and sew through the already existing holes. Thats about it.
Jim McCoin
Fremont Ca.