4 Basic Sewing Repairs for Beginners (No Machine Required!)
When it comes to clothing, the most sustainable option is to wear what you currently have. But what if your favorite shirt is holey or missing a button?
We want to teach you some simple sewing techniques so you can fix that shirt and put it back in the rotation rather than going shopping for a new.
There’s no better time than now to start learning the fundamentals of sewing if you want to be able to fix clothes!
For some of the most typical clothing defects, we are here to guide you on simple, easy-to-follow sewing adjustment lessons.
In this article you will find instructions for mending a hole, attaching a snap, reattaching a button, and spot cleaning below.
1. Choosing a Needle for Stitching
Take a sewing needle, sometimes known as a “sharp,” out of the pack. The most typical packs have a range of sizes. The type of project you are working on will influence the size you choose.
For instance, if you are attaching a button, you should check the button’s holes to ensure that the sewing needle you select will fit through them.
A larger needle is preferable if you plan to stitch through thick or numerous layers of fabric since it will be able to push through the layers of fabric more readily than a little needle.
2. Putting a Needle Through the Thread
It’s time to thread your sewing needle when you’ve made your selection. Take hold of your thread spool and unwind some of it.
Controlling your stitches becomes more challenging as your thread gets longer. Start small, then. Winding out a length of thread the length of your arm is a good place to start.
You might decide to unwind more thread after you’re more accustomed to hand stitching so you don’t have to stop as frequently to rethread your needle.
Use your scissors to cut the thread from the spool. Then, “thread” the thread’s end through the little hole at the top of the sewing needle.
This might require a few tries! For personal repairs only due to hygienic concerns, licking the end can help hold the fibers together. Alternatively, you can recut the end with your scissors until you have a clean end.
Use a wire needle threader if you have one at this point. To loop your thread through the wire, you just pull it through the wire and fold it back over on itself so that you are holding both of the thread’s free ends.
Next, insert the entire wire through the needle’s hole. Drop one end of the loose thread once it has passed through, pull it all the way through on the opposite side of the needle hole, then cut it off at the wire.
While you remove the wire needle threader, grab the free ends that are now on either side of the needle and hold them firmly.
Bring your two loose thread ends together on either side of the needle and straighten them out once your thread end has passed through the needle hole so the needle meets the thread cleanly in the middle.
Make a knot at the two ends of the loose thread, leaving a “tail” of about an inch. To prevent them from slipping while you’re stitching, pull them tight!
3. Marking the Location
You must designate the area where you will sew on any item or piece of clothing that you are working on. If your button doesn’t fit into the buttonhole or your seam isn’t perfectly straight, doing this beforehand will save you a lot of frustration.
If you don’t have tailor’s chalk or a tailor’s marker, you can mark your location with a straight pin with a ball head. This is a convenient alternative because pins are typically included in sewing kits.
You can mark your location using tailor’s chalk or a tailor’s marker, but keep in mind that to remove these after the repair, you’ll need to wash the clothing.
Because they stand out and provide you flexibility to adjust the fabric without sticking yourself, they are good selections.
To exactly determine where your stitching repair will be made, use your ruler. To determine where to resew a button, for instance, you would measure the distance between buttons and the distance from the shirt’s neckline to the location of the button hole.
Once you’ve decided where your clothes repair will be done, you can either use a pin to mark the location vertically or your tailor’s chalk or marker to make a small mark that is easy to see, such as a dot, cross, or x.
If you choose to use a pin, insert the pin straight down into the fabric so that the ball head is directly above the area you want to mark, and then draw the end of the pin back up through the fabric’s underside so that it protrudes through the top of the fabric once more.
You can start mending clothes now that the pin is firmly in place.
4. Taking Out Stitches
The stitch ripper is useful if you made a stitch you don’t like, wish to redo the repair for a neater finish, or need to remove any loose threads from the area you are about to patch.
Slide the small, pointed tip at the end under the thread of the stitch you want to undo. The stitch ripper’s interior is sharp, thus cutting the thread requires pressing against it and pulling up.
When you stitch rip just one thread, the entire row of stitches you made will undo; when you sew rip several threads, the entire thread will come out.
However, if your stitch rips, you will have to start your repair from scratch. Even though it doesn’t feel like it right away, if one thread comes loose, they will all ultimately fall loose. Therefore, make sure to get rid of everything so you can start over.
Conclusion
Anyone who wants to sew by hand needs to learn how to do it. In lieu of taking a garment to the tailor (saving you time and money, win!)
Or just shoving the damaged item in the back of your closet never to be worn again, having the correct tools and hand sewing tips will enable you to accomplish small sewing repairs at home swiftly and easily. Above all, you will be able to quickly increase the lifespan of your garments.
