Last week, I started sewing on elbow patches to my worn out sweaters in my new idealistic state of wanting to mend all of my clothing so I have to get rid of less/consume less this year. Thankfully, as I’ve started feeling better and started consuming less cough medicine, my idealism hasn’t worn off. But now that I have my rational goggles on, I’ve realized that there’s a lot to fix in my closet.
I have this bad habit of having broken buttons, ripped socks and jammed zippers on clothing that I really like and want to wear again, and I say to myself, “I can fix that, but later” and then I never do. Do you do this? Someone else in the world has to do this, too. I can’t be alone in this cruel world of being excited to wear a shirt only to remember I busted off the breast button six months ago.
Well, no more. Let’s start mending. This week we’ll cover how to sew on buttons, darn socks (seriously, I know I joked about this last week but now I have sock feelings) and realign zippers so they work properly again.
Sewing Buttons
I can’t count the amount of buttons I have sewn onto other people’s shirts and jackets for them because they didn’t know how to do it themselves. It’s really simple and easy. Esquire has a surprisingly easy to follow tutorial, but those of you nervous about kind of vague directions will enjoy this super in depth step-by-step guide from Instructables.
Here’s the most important thing you need to remember: keep the button loose from the shirt as you’re sewing it. Nothing is worse than sewing on a button too tightly and not being able to button it closed after all of your hard work. Don’t stress about finding matching buttons or matching thread, either. I find it completely endearing when there’s a mismatched button. If you’re wanting to be pretty intense about matching and can’t find the exact button, however, you may need to suck it up and sew on an entirely new set of buttons. It’s going to be okay. It’ll probably only take you about twenty minutes to sew on five or six.
Darning Socks
I know, I know. Darning socks seems really old-school, right? But then you give in and buy $20 hiking socks and they get a hole in them at the toe and you reassess your priorities in life. Or maybe you just have pointy toes and this is a fact of life for you and your favorite socks. Regardless, never fear, we’ll get your toes covered back up.
To be honest, darning socks is ridiculously simple. The Art Of Doing Stuff has an amazing tutorial that involves using a tennis ball or lightbulb to provide a bit of tension on the end of your sock so that you can sew it easier.
Fixing Zippers
Zippers are actually my arch-nemesis, so I’m pretty sure it’s going to take a lot for me to repair a zipper in my clothing. That said, is there anything more frustrating than when your zipper teeth won’t close? Luckily, with some pliers and thread, it’s not a hard fix.
WikiHow has some kind of hardcore instructions, but if you’re looking for simplicity in this lifestyle of zipper repair we seem to have jumped into together, then I’d recommend this tutorial on About.com. It’s just a process of taking off the zipper bumper and sewing it back up.
So there we have it! Next week, we’re going to go over replacing drawstrings in pants, patching holes in jeans and sewing up torn lining in jackets and handbags. Until then, thing-menders, good luck!
This has been another installment of Make A Thing, where we make things with our hands for ourselves or other people we love.
Header by Rory Midhani
