A few weeks ago I made a post about some basic sewing/mending skills and supplies so people could make their clothes last longer. I’ve been thinking about some things to write for Part 2, so here it is. As before, if other crafty people have more to add, please feel free!

@hotcouchguy asked about best practices/basic stuff that he missed while teaching himself how to sew, so I’ve been trying to think about stuff that you do without even really realizing you do it, and I thought of something that is really useful when you’re hand sewing. I shared this link to show you guys how to backstitch, but I didn’t point out something that she does in the video that is really useful, especially if you want to work quickly. You may have noticed that while she’s sewing, she doesn’t pull all the thread to the back, then pull all the thread to the front. Instead, she pushes her needle to the back and back to the front kind of in the same motion, which leaves most of her thread in the front. Then she pulls the whole thing through to the front again until her stiches are taut. Now, if you’re new to sewing, it might seem a little tricky to send your needle to the back and back to the front again all in one motion like that, so you might want to break it up into two separate motions, which is fine! The one thing I would suggest though is to leave a loop of thread on the front. So you would send your needle to the back and pull through some of the thread, but leave some on the front still, then send your needle to the front and pull the whole thing taut. The reason for this is that it’s easy for thread to get twisted up while you’re working and make a little knot–these knots are often not very sturdy, so they come loose. If you’ve got a knot like that and it comes loose after you’re done, all of a sudden your nice taut seam has turned into a loose mess. This leaves you needing to check the back constantly to make sure there aren’t any sneaky little knots hiding back there, which is a pain. If you leave a loop on the front and then pull the whole thing taut, then you can see that there must not be a knot back there otherwise the front loop wouldn’t move, so that way you’re not constantly flipping your work to check the back. (I’m not sure if all this only makes sense to me because I know what I’m trying to say. Please let me know if any of that needs clarification. It’s so much easier to just show people than try to talk through it!) If your thread does get twisted and makes a knot, usually pulling gently will untangle it. If it’s being stubborn, insert your needle through the loop and pull away from the fabric and it should come undone. This video shows that method, and how to untwist your thread periodically by letting your needle dangle. She’s embroidering, but it’s the same idea. (Sorry, this video is a little cheesy. The methods are sound though!)

I also realized I didn’t tell you guys the technique I use when using the backstitch to mend a hem that’s come undone. It doesn’t happen as often now, but for a while it seemed like every t-shirt I bought, the bottom hem would start to unravel after a few washes. This is what I did to fix it. Snip the loose threads off right next to the fabric so you don’t have any tag ends hanging loose. Thread your needle, and start stitching about an inch from where the original stiches stop, stitching right over the machine stitches, using the same holes in the fabric. This is enough to hold them in place and keep the hem from unraveling more, even through many washings. Then keep backstitching through the area that came undone, and keep stitching over the stitches on the other side, again for about an inch. This is a good moment to point out that a stitch in time saves nine! The more quickly you do this, the less area you’ll need to fix. You may still be able to see the holes for the original stitches too, which will help you keep your stitches uniform and help the whole thing blend in. If you’ve let things go, especially if you’ve washed the garment since it started to unravel, then you probably won’t have that guidance any longer. If it’s a big area, you might want to iron your hem so that you’re not working to keep the hem straight. Some pins will help with that too. Then knot the thread (there’s a section on that in Part 1). Note: Hems don’t typically have a lot of pressure on them so in my experience, you don’t need to bother with trying to knot off the machine stitches to keep them from unraveling. However, if it’s a seam that’s come undone–like if you’ve split the seat of your pants or something–there’s going to be more pressure there. You might want to unravel enough of the machine stitches to have enough thread to work with to knot it, then mend the open part. I don’t like trying to knot machine stiches though and I don’t like unpicking stitches, so as I recall I’ve just backstitched farther over the machine stitches–like instead of 1 inch, 2 or 3 if it was an area that was going to be under pressure.

How to thread a needle: (How did I skip this before??? I mentioned using a needle threader if you’re having trouble, but that’s it. Whoops!) This is how I do it. She mentions that saliva is bad for your thread. True! (I have done it though.) There’s also beeswax, which I linked to in Part 1 if you want to stiffen your thread and try to just push it through. I think the loop method above works pretty well though. If you want to cheat 😁 and use a needle threader, here’s how to do it. (No shame, I have one and use it sometimes when I’m struggling for some reason.)

Fix a snag in a knit: This tool is a nifty little thing that you can use to grab a snag in a sweater and pull the loop to the back so it isn’t visible. It’s very easy to use! There’s a little latch that goes over the hook so that the hook doesn’t snag on the fabric when you pull it back through. Insert back to front, open the latch, put the loop you’re trying to hide between the latch and the hook, close the latch, and pull back through. The snag is now inside the garment where nobody can see it. Oh, here’s a video if that didn’t make sense. She mentions that she uses the tool for other stuff while sewing, and I do too. It’s a pretty useful little gadget! One thing I use it for is if I haven’t quite left myself enough thread to bury the end (See Part 1 on knotting off your thread) because if you don’t have at least the needle’s length of working thread left, you can’t bring the point of the needle back near enough to your knot to make it work. This video is the only thing I’ve found that kind of comes close to explaining what I’m talking about. She’s finishing off embroidery, but you can see that she’s “burying” thread in a similar way. Skip to 1:40.

Mending a hole in a t-shirt: I don’t like iron-on patches and prefer to use a needle and thread to fix holes, but that’s just me–plenty of people like iron-on just fine. This video is nice because it shows you several varieties of iron-on patches, as well as how to sew it shut or use fabric glue. Like I said, I prefer the sewn method that she shows here, but you can see the range and make your own choices.

I talked about how to sew on a button in Part 1, but I didn’t say anything about what to do if you don’t have the original button to sew back on or a handy replacement in the hem for you to use. When that happens, take the garment to your local fabric store and see what your options are. You may get lucky and be able to find something similar enough that nobody will ever know the difference. If that doesn’t work, you have 2 options–you can cut off all the other buttons and replace them all (not my preference), or remove the top button from the garment and move it to the missing spot, and pick out a deliberately different button to put in the top spot, so it looks like a fashion choice and not a bad match (my preference–I am lazy and don’t want to replace all the buttons, but I’m also a perfectionist so if the match isn’t close enough to really satisfy me then it’ll bother me forever and I won’t want to wear the garment.)

OK, that’s all I’ve thought of for now. If anyone has a project that they’re not sure how to approach or something that needs to be mended that you’re not sure how to fix, please feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to help you out. I enjoy this stuff, so it’s no bother! (Also if you’d like to get into embroidery or crochet and you’re not sure where to start etc, I’d be happy to talk needlecrafts too!)

*The header image is the scissors case I made for my embroidery scissors last summer, because I’m pretty proud of it lol.