Casie's super basic beginners repair and upgrading thread.

Okay, let's be upfront about my sewing abilities.  I can attach a button, thread a needle, and stitch a messy running stitch or back stitch.  With good diagrams and patience I can use a sewing machine but I prefer hand stitching because bad as am at that I still sew straighter lines than when I use a machine.   All of that isn't as dreary a picture as it sounds like.

I am starting this thread because I felt like I was hijacking this thread https://permies.com/t/154258/sewing/fiber-arts/Clothing-patterns-based-rectangles with my repairs on a dress I made more than 20 years before.   You can see it's not perfect but I am still proud of that dress.  With patience and preserverance my shody sewing skills are enough to bring it back to life.

There's other things I can manage, too. Serviceable hems that let me alter clearance pants for work was a real boon. No one ever commented on the uneven stitches.  I have replaced buttons on study cotton eyelet lace shirts that are still in good condition.   I bought them used an it's been more than 20 years that I have had them.

For now this thread is mostly going to document repairing this dress but I will try to include other odds and ends as they happen.  Possibly over time I might start posting more things that need repairs that I don't know how to do.  I have never found people who give helpful advice like the permies crowd and I'm not too proud to use that resource.

I am too proud to post pictures of my underwear that I am modifying into period panties, but I highly recommend it as a good beginner sewing project.  It's small, useful, and it doesn't matter how messy your stitching is, you don't need to redo just to make it prettier.  Unlike a lot of sewing projects these are actually less expensive to make your own even if you buy new materials.

Later today I will be fixing a very comfortable mostly linen shirt that I bought earlier this summer but can't wear out because the buttons are too small for the holes.  I don't have enough buttons of the right size to replace these and I don't want to completely redo every hole to fit the buttons I do have, so I am going to make the button holes smaller.

Okay, this is the shirt in question.  It's freshly washed and hung dry but looks much better after a quick iron.  Everything looks fine on the hanger and seemed fine checking fit at the store. I'm lucky it fits me well enough not to gape as the buttons come loose because I was at work before I realized there was a problem.

Because I did had a problem I have also noticed that all the buttons are extremely wiggly.  Even after I fix the button holes it won't help if I start losing buttons.   If that happened I have up to three buttons before I would replace the whole set.  Using decorative buttons on the cuffs and at the collar is an old tradition and so there is no reason they have to match the rest.  Personally I have never been able to locate my spare matching button when I needed it.  Approximately eight stitches per button and now the issue probably won't even come up.  Notice they don't look very different, but they don't wiggle if I move the fabric. I determined where to sew up the buttons holes by testing the fit with the needle as a pin.  I pulled the first stitch through after confirming it would easily button but not pull loose.

I am also going to point out the rivets on the stress points of the pockets.  Doing this on jeans is what made Levi's so famous. The hardest part on any fabric tear is the start.  That's actually the origin of the saying 'a stitch in time saves nine'. If you have pockets you actually use you can always do some reinforcement stitch at these spots before they need repair at all.  Sometimes it's skipping these steps in production that makes something fast fashion rather than the materials.

Casie, I love this. I am also not a sew-er but have a stack of shirts I want to mend b/c they are good natural fiber blouses that are perfectly fine except for some tear or bad buttons!

You inspired me to actually break out the needle and thread yesterday and mend two tears in a linen blouse.

First, for the record, the dress you're repairing is designed to use fabric *very* efficiently, so I do not feel that you were derailing that thread at all! The two front "triangle" gussets would have been cut from a single rectangle of fabric!

Second, for the record, that lovely shirt you're repairing broke a cardinal rule of button holes which is good to watch for. (Although I can't complain as the second hand shirt I'm currently wearing broke the same rule!) In a perfect world, button holes work better if the long axis of the button is perpendicular to the direction of pull. So the buttonholes that aren't holding your buttons securely, are oriented in the same line as the opening of the shirt. If they were rotated 90degrees, when there was any pull on the shirt, it would pull the button into the end of the hole which traps it better. Does that make sense?

Sooo... if you find that even after tightening up the hole, the buttons keep popping out, I'll make two suggestions:
1. Find some firm bias tape in a matching colour and stitch it on the inside of the edge of the shirt to make that edge thicker and firmer. You'll have to cut button holes in it and stitch through both layers in a button hole stitch.
2. This may not work with the style of buttons, but if you put scrap buttons on the underside of the visible buttons, it might firm them up even more. These buttons will be on the inside of the garment, so the don't need to match. Adding a strip of bias tape on the inside of that side might also work.

That's a lovely shirt - it's well worth rescuing it!

Thank you.   I didn't know that about button holes. I could easily have copied their orientation for something in the future and never figured out why I was having so much trouble with buttons.

Casie Becker wrote:Thank you.   I didn't know that about button holes. I could easily have copied their orientation for something in the future and never figured out why I was having so much trouble with buttons.

It's one of those tiny details that many people never even know about until they have a shirt where vertical button holes cause problems!

I found a friend some clear plastic sew-on snaps - a few of those around the breast area might improve security but you'd have to stitch them on carefully through just the inner fabric of the side with the button holes, so the stitches won't show on the outside. I hate to be suggesting plastic, but there isn't much in a pair of snaps and they last a long time. I cut them off old things and re-use them elsewhere just like a reuse buttons! I suspect the metal type would show through that material - hard to tell from a photo though.

Part of why it was so important I repair this is that it is one of the rare white tops that isn't sheer on me so they might not show, but I think what I've done will work.  Even when the top button comes undone it's no worse than a deep v neck.  If it gives me more problems I can last till I get home.   I have had more bad experiences with snaps than with buttons so it will be a last resort.

In other news, I realized that between switching threads I forgot to post the beginning progress on the dress yesterday. For future reference I should get at least 1 inch wide ribbon to do this kind of work in the future.   I am not always having enough width to cover the raw seams and sew the edge under.  On the top side where it won't need to wrap over the raw edges I think it will work perfectly.

I will cover all the undersides before even starting the top.  It is all being hand stitched, so it is going to take quite a while.  On the plus side I am getting good practice using thimbles and I think I am seeing quick improvement in the quality of the stitches. I mentioned it in the thimble thread, but it bears repeating that I find the leather thimbles very easy to work with.

Note that the correct edges were done as a test before I finished attaching the whole length of ribbon and those stitches are probably making someone cry.  The messy edge where I couldn't wrap around the whole seam and tuck under show how quickly I am improving with the use of thimbles.

There's 10 seems total so 8 more on the underside and by then I should have enough practice to make the top side look nice.  I am so slow, but I am slowly getting faster. Notice that I was able to fold under the ribbon correctly this time.

There are probably better and more detailed videos for this kind of repair, but I like this one enough that I want to find it when I am brave enough to attempt altering a dress.    maybe it will be useful for others.

I hover between medium and large on the bottom sizes but I have to shop large and extra large to fit into dresses.  It's very hard to find my preferences and have them fit me well.  Mostly I rely on strong zippers that can squeeze me down evenly. I have some with buttons in my closet that I thought I would shrink into (not crazy, I dropped 5 sizes in a year when I started keto) but apparently my chest won't go that small.  I can do this, I can finally wear them.(They have real usable pockets!)

Also now have a better grasp on how to open seams to add pockets to other clothes.  The advantage to shopping for an oversized top is that there's generous room to fit pockets in the side.

Let's start with how I don't understand people buying pre-torn clothing.  I didn't understand the fashion when I was a child and I still don't understand it today.  However I came across a perfect fitting, nicely embroidered and made with recycled cotton pair of jeans that was had a unfinished hem.  Loved it enough to buy it and wear one time.  

That unfinished hem is just long enough to get under my heels causing both slippery footing and expanding fraying. The embroidery comes down so far that there's not enough plain cloth to double fold for a hem.

Still, I love the jeans and because I am working on that dress I now have both the knowledge and the materials to make a proper hem when there's not enough fabric. It's not pretty inside, but it fixes all the problems.   Tomorrow I will fix the other hem.

Casie Becker wrote:That unfinished hem is just long enough to get under my heels causing both slippery footing and expanding fraying. The embroidery comes down so far that there's not enough plain cloth to double fold for a hem.

Nice job,  but are the pants now short enough that you won't trip? Were they just a "little" too long,  but not too long enough to make a full hem?

No one is going to see the inside, so your ribbon fix looks completely adequate to me. However, I would keep an eye on it, as the ribbon you used doesn't look as sturdy as twill tape would have been, nor the fabric of the pants themselves. It may simply mean that you will have to repeat the process before the pants wear out. Considering it's on my ToDo list to add patches to my son's patched jeans, that's a totally acceptable approach to me!

Yes, they are now short enough.   It was something like an eighth of an inch that was just barely catching under my heel.  Between that and the loose threads I would occasionally go to turn and feel my heel start to slip.

Real bias tape is on my list of things to get in the future, but I think think this is sturdy enough for now and I already have it.  The fabric is a thin denim, but it's on par with most of what is out there these days.

Based on past experiences the inseam will wear our first. And then I can decide if I want to learn how to repair that, or try converting these into a skirt.  I was explaining to my niece that the end goal here is not to make my own clothes, it's to be able to alter my clothes to make them perfect.

After examining all of my button up shirts, every single one has vertical button holes.  It looks like only pants are using the most secure direction.  I always wonder when I see very simple design flaws like that if it's strategy on the part of the clothing companies. Most people will replace a shirt before repairing a button hole these days.  I also think it's why they push the torn clothes styles so hard.

Thank you for suggesting sew on snaps earlier in this thread.  It made me think about them more and recognize I was being irrational. I will be adding snaps to button up shirts where there is extra stress causing gaps at the bust. I have also started sewing closed the lower  placket on pullover shirts with similar issues.

I am considering adding strips of that burlap fabric into the legs of jeans.  I have very muscular legs but not much butt. Jeans that fit my torso usually leave seam imprints on my legs. I suspect it would be relatively simple to add decorative gussets that widen just the legs.  That burlap weave is so open I think it would also make the jeans cooler during the 9 months of hot weather we have here.  In this application I don't think I will need to line the burlap.

Casie Becker wrote:

After examining all of my button up shirts, every single one has vertical button holes.  It looks like only pants are using the most secure direction.  I always wonder when I see very simple design flaws like that if it's strategy on the part of the clothing companies.  

I use a lot of button up shirts as summer farm shirts for sun protection. I have 12 hanging in the closet and 10 have vertical button holes. The only two that have horizontal button holes, are ones I sewed myself... I suspect that vertical is faster for seamstresses to sew accurately??? Seconds count in that business!