Tag: sewing

Repairing old clothes (Part 1)

One of the most heart-breaking things to happen to your wardrobe is the inevitable death of one of your favourite pieces.

The life cycle of clothing tends to go like this.

1. You find a piece you love and snag it before anyone else can.
2. You wear it to death.
3. Then you notice a hole or tear and end up having to buy it again (or the next best thing if it’s sold out)

Unfortunately, this will eventually happen for every item in your wardrobe after a while but, there are ways to save your clothes, save the contents of your wallet and, help the environment all at the same time.

When you go shopping, it’s important to focus on the quality and functionality of the things you buy. Making sure that your wardrobe essentials are made from high-quality materials means that they’ll be able to last longer and will be less likely to sustain damage.

But if you’ve already got a closet full of faves that have some battle scars, you can pick up a needle and thread and give your clothes new life.

It’s easier than you think and can be done in many cool ways.

Fixing tears in seams

On average, seams are held together with an overlocking stitch, so that’s how we repair them. You might think that you need an serger to do a double overlock stitch but all you need is a domestic sewing machine and an over edge foot.

  1. Turn your clothing inside out and find the tear.
  2. Hold the two edges of the tear together and pin them.
  3. Use an overlocking stitch to bind the tear together, making sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of the stitch.
Overlocking stich on a tear

Patching a hole (With fabric & Embroidery)  
Using embroidery to cover a hole allows you to get really creative when repairing clothes, while at the same time giving them a fresh new look.

This can be done in many ways.

Using embroidery to cover holes.

Criss-crossing embroidery stitches are a super easy way to cover holes with patches of colourful thread, Either in basic shapes or more complex designs. In terms of stitches, you can use a basic running stich, a split stitch or back stitch, though you’ll create a tighter stitch with a back stich than with any other.

These are only two of the basic ways to make repairs at home, stay tuned for part two where you’ll learn some of the more complex home repair methods.



My self taught fashion journey

Intro

Fashion and design have always real passions of mine but for the longest time I stayed in my lane, only shopping and putting outfits together. But during the Covid-19 lockdowns I decided to finally get myself a sewing machine and see what I could make myself.

Where I started
During the first lockdown, with way too much time and nothing to do, my dad offered to buy me the sewing machine that I’d been saving up for and I started to teach myself how to alter my clothes so that I could save money on shopping and be more eco-friendly.
At first I broke three sewing needles in one day before realising that there were specific needles needed for different fabrics. After I figured that out, and found a few great YouTube videos to teach me the basics, I was on my way to being kind of good at sewing.

Why I started
Beyond wanting to save money on clothing by making it rather than buying, at the start of 2020 I also decided that I wanted to reduce my carbon foot print and contribute less to the damage that fast fashion can cause. I’m not saying that I’ll never shop again, but I am saying that

What I’ve learnt
To make:
Skirts
Strappy vests
Pleat
Basic repairs
Alterations (Eyelets, Corset backs, Lettuce hems)

Where I’m struggling

Pattern making
– When I first started sewing I stuck to alterations, taking old things in mar wardrobe and giving them new life. But after a while I decided to finally try my hand at making something from scratch. That’s when I bought pattern pieces and jumped in at the deep end, which was a big mistake. There’s a learning curve when it comes to using patterns, and a load of lingo and symbols you need to learn the meaning of before you can do anything. And making your own patterns from scratch is even harder.

Normally when I fail at something I want to quit straight away but instead, I bought a couple books on pattern making and pored over them until I’d gotten the basics down and was ready to put my knowledge into practice.

I still have a ways to go but I’m well on my way to being a pattern making natural.

Working with non stretch fabrics
Stretch fabrics have been my best friends throughout my sewing journey. While they can be tricky to sew with at times, they’re much more forgiving when it comes to the fit of a garment.
With non stretch fabrics your measurements and cutting need to be exact as there won’t be much movement in the garment to allow mistakes.

There were a couple books I could read and blogs I could look at to figure out how to work best with non-stretch fabrics, but the best thing to do was measure and cut again and again until I got my numbers right and then go from there.

Embroidery & embellishments
Aside from choosing cute fabrics to work with to give my projects something extra, there’s not much I can do without the ability to add my own embellishments. I started practicing embroidery to give my projects a little personality and while it’s a slow going process I’ve leant a lot of cool techniques I can use to make unique designs.

What I’m doing well at

Basic repairs and alterations
Repairing, hemming, dying and altering are all things I’ve taken too like a duck takes to water.
While I’m not ready to tackle the more difficult parts of sewing I’ve definitely got the easy things down and that’s allowed me to give new life to my wardrobe.

What I want to do/learn next

So far making trousers and shorts has been my biggest challenge and remains what I want to do next. The amount of measuring you need to do to make sure that trousers fit in all the right places seriously messes with my brain. Skirts and dresses are so easy to make because most of them just slip over your head and your but trousers are a real challenge that might just drive you crazy.

But I’ll still keep trying.

In short, I’m very early on in my fashion journey and I know that with a lot of reading and a lot of practice I’ll get far. I’ll just have to have the patience of a saint and the discipline of a martial artist, kinda hard for someone with ADHD to do, but I’ll try.