In the same way that growing your own food may be regarded as a radical act, so is repairing and maintaining your clothing instead of throwing it out if it is damaged and buying a new item. Both actions go against the system that sees us as consumers and nothing more. To be able to repair your own clothing (saving you money and saving the environment) you need three things: skills, tools and supplies. This series is about the second and third of those two requirements.
• Hand Sewing Needles - For clothing repair and general sewing the variety known as sharps are most commonly used, an assortment of sizes being handy to have. There are packets of assorted sizes of sharps, darners and embroidery needles that are available at ridiculously cheap prices from our supermarket chains.
- Sharps – are general purpose hand sewing needles with small eyes (can be fun to thread up when you are old like me!)
- Darners – designed for…. Wait for it! Darning! That is to say they are used to darn holes in fabrics and knitting. They have a larger eyes, and a more rounded point that prevents yarn from splitting.
- Embroidery needles – can also be used for general purpose mending and they have larger, easier to thread eyes than sharps.
• Pins - The standard 25mm long dressmakers pins are ideal for clothing repair, nickel plated steel is the most common material of construction and is sufficient for most jobs but stainless steel is better because it will not rust and will last longer in use. Some plastic headed pins are also worth having because they are easy to see and comfortable to work with. Over time, pins can become blunt and cause fabric snags, but do not discard them because they can be sharpened.
• Safety Pins - While they should not be used for permanent repairs having a selection various sizes of safety pins in the mending kit will allow emergency repairs to be carried out quickly and efficiently.
• Thread - Polyester thread can be used on most fabrics and so is the best for clothing repair. Five colours will cover most repair jobs: black (or dark brown or blue), white, red, a medium grey or tan shade and some transparent monofilament thread that allows repairs to be carried out on any colour fabric. A 500 metre spool of each is a good. It is a good idea to also have a card or two of waxed linen thread for heavy duty clothing repairs and repairs to thick cloth such as canvas, it is available from saddleries and hardware shops.
• Thimble - This is used to protect the middle finger while hand sewing, and allow greater force to be used when pushing a needle through fabric. They come in several sizes to ensure a snug fit so make sure you get one that fits you.
• Needle Threader - This is a loop of thin wire fixed to an easily grasped handle, the wire is pushed through the eye of the needle and the thread inserted in the loop thus formed. When the loop is pulled back through the eye the thread is pulled with it, threading the needle. This can be extremely handy if the lighting is poor, you can't find your glasses or you're trying to fix a rip in your trousers with cold wet hands. THere are also more complex designs of needle threaders where the thread goes in one end, the needle eye in the other, push a little lever and presto! Needle threaded!
• Seam Ripper - This useful little tool makes it easy to remove stitching, cut seams open and rip hem, the pointed end then being used to remove the cut stitches. It can make the job easier if you need to make alterations, replace a zipper or fix it when some stitching goes wrong.
• Scissors - Buy the best quality scissors that you can even if you have to mortgage your spouse to do it! They should last a lifetime if treated with care and used for sewing only. A small oilstone should also be bought to keep them sharp. 15 centimetres (6 inches) is a good length and they should have one sharp point for clipping, snipping and trimming. The technique for sharpening scissors can be seen here.
• Sewing Gauge - This is a 15 cm ruler with a sliding marker or a stainless steel clip used for making small measurements and keeping distances constant while marking hems, button locations and pleats etc.
• Glue Stick - Can be used to form a temporary bond for hems, trims, appliques and zippers so that pinning or basting is unnecessary.
• Liquid Fray Preventer - (eg Fray Stop) A colourless solvent based liquid polymer solution that prevents fraying and unravelling along the cut edge of a fabric. It can also be used to control ladders in panty hose and tidy up buttonholes that have become frayed. If you don’t have any, clear nail polish will work too.
• Beeswax - Hand sewing thread is run across this to apply a waxy lubricating film to cut down on knotting and tangling. It is usually sold in a container with slots in it for this purpose but a white candle stub can also be used and is just as good.
• Buttons - It is well worth keeping a jar of assorted old buttons for replacing ones that go astray. If you do not regularly cannibalise worn out clothing for their buttons the prime source of supply at a reasonable price is the local Opportunity Shop. A supply of recycled buttons can also be worth their weight in gold by keeping the kids out from under your feet on a wet afternoon!
For an article on the humble button jar, click here!
• Hooks, Eyes & press studs - Keep a varied supply of these on hand in nickel for light fabrics and black finish for dark fabrics. Both large and small press studs are useful and it is worth having some of both.
• Knit Fixer/Latch Hooks – These tools are used to fix ladders (dropped stitches) in knitwear. They are also used to repair snags, picks and pulls in woven clothing without creating rips or tears. It is simply a case of pushing the latch hook through the fabric or wool, picking up the snag with the hook, closing the latch and pulling the defect through to the other side of the fabric.
• Crochet hooks – These are also used to fix snags, picks or pulls as described above but may be easier to find than a latch hook. They also have the benefit of being able to be used to make crochet items as well.
All of these bits and pieces do not take up a whole stack of space, and can be easily fitted into decent sized plastic container, a sewing box or if all else fails a shoe box. The container should be kept handy to facilitate those quick repairs when life gets too much for our clothes.
