A Few Sewing Tricks You Should Know Without Calling Up Mum

Because admit it, you still can't sew on a button, can you?

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by Zing Tsjeng |
Published on

When was the last time you chucked something just because a button fell off? Fess up, don’t feel guilty; it’s something we do all too often. New research suggests that baby boomers (i.e. Mum and Dad) know their way around a sewing needle, while millenials flounder at fixing a simple rip. In fact, America alone generated 14.3 million tonnes of textile rubbish in 2012, mostly because they trashed clothes before even attempting to mend them.

C’mon guys – waste not, want not. We called up Lauren Guthrie, a finalist on the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee and author of Learn To Sew With Lauren, for a few quick and dirty tips on how to fix your clothes.

How To... Sew On The Button That’s Been Dangling Off Your Shirt For Weeks

‘First you want to make sure you’ve got enough thread on the needle so that when it’s doubled up, it’s no longer than the length of your forearm. Quite often I see people in my workshops about to sew something on with a mass of long thread that gets tangled really easily!

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Button the other buttons around it to make your shirt lie nice and flat. Put your needle through the middle of the buttonhole. You sew the button on wherever the needle lands on the underneath bit. But before the button even enters the picture, you want to do two or three stitches on that spot so your thread is anchored and secure.

A shirt button usually has four holes to it; then you would come up through one of the holes so the button lies on top of the fabric. You’d go diagonally across, through the fabric to the back and then back again through the first hole you went through. Do this three or four times. Then you work on the other diagonal, so it looks like a little cross.

Once you’ve done your little cross, you need to tie the thread off and secure it. Bring the needle to the front of the fabric but underneath the button. Wind the thread under the button, maybe four or five times. As you loop it around the button, leave a little loop with your thread, pull your needle through that loop and pull it tight. That’s you knotting the thread.’

How To... Fix The Annoying Rip In Your Jeans

‘You can buy iron-on motifs with different designs and patterns from a haberdashery – you can even get denim and leather patches. Lay the jeans out flat, put the motif over the hole and iron over it. The glue on the back of the motif melts and sticks to the jeans. Sew around the edges to make it really secure.

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If it’s a really small rip, you don't need a motif. Turn the garment inside out and bring the edges of the hole together. Thread your needle and tie a knot in the bottom of your thread, then do a couple of stitches around the hole so your thread is anchored. Making sure the raw edges of the hole are pulled together, stitch straight through it – remember to keep the stitches to be quite close together!’

How To... Mend A Ripped Seam

‘Get this stuff called seam tape interfacing, which is basically a very thin iron-on strip about 5mm wide. You can iron it onto the inside of the garment on either side of the rip, which strengthens the fabric. Then you turn the garment inside out, bring the rip together and sew it together again. Because you’ve ironed the seam tape interfacing on, it strengthens the fabric so it’s less likely to rip and come away again.’

How To... Patch Worn Out Elbow Holes

‘The key thing is to get one that closely matches your fabric. Someone came into my shop the other week with a knitted silk jumper and she wanted a leather patch. It wouldn’t have been suitable because the garment was so fine! If you’ve got a little blouse or knitted top, you’d want to find something of a lighter weight to match the fabric. You’d only need a little scrap of material – find something in a charity shop you can cut up or even use something in your wardrobe you don’t wear anymore.

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Cut out the shape of your patch and iron the edges of that patch towards the back of the fabric. Imagine a rectangle of fabric on your ironing board; fold over a centimetre of its raw edge towards the back of the fabric, then iron it flat. You don’t want raw edges of fabric on your elbow because it’ll just fray.

So now you’ve got a bit of fabric with a folded edge all the way round. Put that onto the outside your jacket and sew all the way around it. The easiest way is doing lots of little loops around the outside edge of the patch. You could put it on the inside of the garment, but the problem with that is you’ll still see the hole on the outside.’

How To... Shorten The Hem On A Pair Of Trousers

‘The biggest mistake most people make is not taking into consideration the amount of fabric that will be on the inside of the garment. You can’t just say “I want my trousers to come to there” and cut it off. You have to remember to leave a bit extra.

Decide the length you want the garment to be, make sure you leave around an inch and a half and cut the fabric that bit longer. There might be another hem there, so you’ll want to cut all the stitches that are already holding the existing hem in place.

Get some iron-on hemming tape – which is sort of a cheat’s way to do it – and fold your hem towards the inside of the garment with the tape sandwiched in the fold. Then you iron it and the hemming tape sticks it all together, like double-sided tape. Remember, it’s not sticky till the heat from the iron melts and activates it!’

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Picture: Getty

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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