10 Effective Ways to Repair Holes and Tears in Your Costly Clothes
| |Does the very thought of repairing your favorite attires make you feel really unhappy? If yes, then you must know that repairing clothes is not a happiest and pleasurable sewing works for anyone. But, it is sometimes necessary that you have to do when you find holes in your favorite dresses. This small or large hole might have occurred due to various reasons such as – some acidic element had fallen on the clothes, moth ate away the fabric fibres, buttons have strained the fabric and torn the area. Let us consider different ways to repair the holes and make your clothes look newer like before.
- Make certain easy adjustments – If you are having a kint dress or fabric and there are small holes in it, then you can get them repaired quickly with proper switching. Turn your clothes inside out and use a big needle to arrange for the surrounding threads carefully and then cover the small hole. After this, try to stretch the fabric in every direction and the hole will possibly repair by their own.
- Repair with fusible iron on the fabric – If the tear is extremely small and on thin fabrics, then knitting is the perfect solution to keep a light-weight fusible under the tear and then press properly with iron. As the small hole begins to mend, the cut thread will be fusing to the interface beneath. You may use iron-on-mending fabric that is available adhesive on one side. You need to stretch the hole lightly at the time of pressing so that the loose threads adhere to the interfacing underneath. Use a pressing cloth between the iron and fabric in order to prevent press marks.
- Mend a rip in the seam – If the rip is on the seam you may machine stitch easily, then sew the seam through a straight stitch and remember to anchor thread with back stitches at the starting and ending so that stitching would not be left undone. But what to do when you do not have a sewing machine? Well, you need to take out the sewing emergency kit, thread the needle and then start with a ladder stitch. Ladder stitch is a cool hand stitch that makes stitching almost invisible.
- Darning and other stitches – When you discuss about invisible mending in London, darning is used in case the hole seems to be bigger, the fabric has frayed or singed due to thin fibres and you need to cut away frayed or scorched part. Also, darning will help to replace the fabric fibers that are already missing. Darning is all about sewing the tear or rip and then covering it properly with smaller stitches of the same colour like the background fabric. Use hand sewing needle and sewing machine or thread with a darning foot for the darning stitches. You can also use decorative stitches such as an arrowhead or other filling stitches for covering the tears and rips.
- Mend with clothing patches – This will consist of getting a piece of fabric from the same clothes and then use it for repairing the hole or tear. Different options are there to sew hand made or hand cut clothing patches onto the fabric for the preparation of clothing patches. The best clothing patch is actually the fabric taken from the garment itself. Self-fabric for the patching may be taken from anywhere there is extra fabric. If you want to cut a little part of the fabric to cover the tear or hole, then this might be used for covering the hole perfectly. Calico patching is about patching fabric that has the same cloth like the base fabric. Print patching consists of the patches that should be matched and is done on a patterned and chequered fabric.
- Decorative appliqué or ornamental patching – Applique is a fabric embellishment method that allows using other fabric pieces for decorating a fabric. You need to use decorative stitches to a sew applique. When it is being used to mend the holes present in a fabric, it is known as ornamental patching. The benefit of choosing this procedure is that you are decorating your fabric at the same time for mending it. There are different ways for using the appliqué such as – handsew applique or do machine applique. You require an applique piece which has to be at least 1/2 inch bigger all around than the hole or tear. Reverse applique is another method that involves keeping your applique fabric under the hole for a wonderful texture with different types of fabrics to be with this technique.
- Decorate with beadwork or trims or sequin – If the hole is present in an appropriate place, then you may use some form of embellishments over the hole for covering it. You may need to replicate the design on other areas of the attire for making it appear natural. You may go through the tutorials to sew beadwork stitches, beadwork flowers, sequins that can be helpful for covering up a tear in the fabric.
- Cut and adjust to prevent the tear – If the hole or cut seems to be much beyond repair or you cannot summon to repair it carefully, then you will have to make necessary adjustments to the clothing so that the hole is stitched properly. Thus, if you are finding a hole in the sleeve hem, then cut the hem away and sew a new hem or add additional fabric as a cuff or band to add the length you have already lost.
- Wear the tear through peekaboos or ripped clothes – Some holes usually require necessary finishing works at the edges of the fabric or else the hole will keep on becoming larger and thus, you may not want to get the look of frayed edge. You may sew a facing and turn the facing to the inside or whip stitch the edges for a better look.
- Try to use mending glue for the fabrics – There are special fabric glues that may help to seal the small tears on the fabric in an invisible way. You will find a waterproof layer being formed by the glue quickly when it is applied on the surface of the fabric. This is considered to be a suitable solution for repairing small tears when there is no possible option to use any of the ones discussed above.
When you wear the same clothes repeatedly, then it is obvious that there will be holes in them. So, you need to change clothes and rotate them often so that all of them are not worn equally and this can be prevented in due course. Besides, it is extremely important to clean and maintain the clothes properly so that they do not get torn and form holes. Avoid rubbing your clothes by using hard brushes to get rid of stain marks that can eventually be the reason for the formation of these unwanted holes. There are suitable solutions available to remove the stain marks from your costly clothes.
Since prevention is said to be the best solution, make sure you are extremely careful when taking up the mending works. Even a small fire from the cigarette lighter might leave a burnt hole, buttons being pulled hastily can form a hole, walking carelessly near door handles could end up tearing your expensive clothes and iron setting kept in linen can be extremely disastrous for your clothes. Thus, mending is indeed a time-consuming process however, it will deliver good results and utmost feeling of satisfaction for your sustainable living. Don’t forget to know about invisible mending prices in order to make it a profitable business for your daily life.