Everyday mending by hand and machine: buttons, seams, hems and holes

Deciding what to mend, a mending kit, the core hand stitches, buttons with a thread shank, split seams, patches and darns, and what to take to a tailor.

1. Deciding what to mend, and the kit Understand

Much mending is small: a button, a few inches of seam, a hem that has dropped, a hole the size of a fingertip. The work that takes time is deciding, so we start there.

The University of Tennessee's 4-H sheet on repairing clothes (UT Extension 4-H, Repair Your Clothes, W 885, 2020) gives six questions to ask before starting. We use them as the sorting test for the pile:

1. How extensive is the damage?
2. Do I have the skill, or does someone else need to do it?
3. Is it worth repairing, given its age, fit and use?
4. How much time will it take?
5. Can I afford to replace it?
6. Will I wear it after mending?

If the answer to the last question is no, the row is "let go", whatever the damage.

The mending log has one row per item. Its plan column takes five answers:

The log also has a status column. Mark a plan confirmed when you know the method and have what it needs, provisional when you have chosen a method but one fact is open (will the patch show, will the darn hold at the elbow), and unresolved when you do not yet know whether to mend it. A status is your own judgment.

The UT sheet also lists the stress points where seams fail first: the crotch, the underarm and the pockets. It suggests reinforcing those seams before they split. Convention When you sort, look at those seams on every item in the pile, not only the damaged ones.

The mending kit

The UT sheet's basic kit is a portable box or basket with assorted hand needles, stainless steel pins, safety pins, scissors and thread in five basic colors (white or beige, navy, brown, black, medium gray). Its extra supplies are snaps, hooks and eyes, a seam ripper, a needle threader, a seam gauge or 6 in ruler, a pin cushion, assorted buttons, fusible bonding web and iron-on mending tape. Oregon State's 4-H equipment sheet (OSU Extension, Sewing Equipment, 4-H 320-11) adds the definitions:

On thread color, OSU notes that thread looks slightly darker on the spool than in the stitch, so it says to choose thread slightly darker than the fabric. Convention Take the garment, or a scrap of it, to compare. For mending, all-purpose polyester thread from the machine work covers most items; the UT sheet adds that thread matched to the fiber of the fabric suits a seam repair (more under split seams).

This manual does not suggest a safety pin as a repair; in the kit, safety pins thread elastic through a casing (Closures and elastic). Fusible web and mending tape have their limits set out under a falling hem.

OSU's equipment sheet also says not to attach a magnetic pin holder to a computerized sewing machine. Product-specific Keep the magnetic dish on the table, or use a fabric pin cushion.

2. Hand sewing: needle, thread, knot and stitches

Buttons, hooks and invisible hems are sewn by hand in nearly every source, so hand stitches do most of the work in mending.

Needle and thread

Oregon State's hand-sewing sheet (OSU Extension, Hand-Sewing Skills, 4-H 320-13) says the needle should be small enough to slip through the fabric without leaving holes the thread does not fill, and that sharps suit most hand sewing. Hand needles are numbered the other way from machine needles: OSU's equipment sheet says the larger the number, the finer the needle. Convention

Cut the thread about 16 to 18 in (41 to 46 cm) long. Convention Thread that is too long tangles, frays and breaks, as the University of Kentucky's hand stitches sheet says.

UKY says most hand stitches use a single thread, and buttons, hooks and eyes and snaps use a double thread. With heavier thread, such as button or carpet thread, a single strand is enough. Cut the thread with scissors, not by breaking it: UKY says a broken end is fuzzy and does not go through the eye easily. Cut it on a slant. OSU adds a detail worth keeping: thread the freshly cut end and knot that same end, which keeps the thread's twist and stops it fraying as you sew. Pulling the thread through beeswax adds strength and slip, OSU says, but not on fabric that oil can stain.

Threading, including two methods for low vision

The UF/IFAS sheet gives three methods:

1. Direct. Hold the needle in one hand and push the slanted end through the eye.
2. Wire threader. Push the threader's thin wire loop through the eye, put the thread through the loop, and pull the threader back out. The thread comes with it.
3. Palm method. UF/IFAS describes this one as helping people with impaired vision. Drape the cut thread across your palm, ends hanging off. Lay the needle across the thread with its eye facing up, and slide the needle back and forth across the thread. The thread bunches up through the eye. Pull it through. UF/IFAS says it can take a lot of practice.

Good light helps all three. The lamp on the needle side from Your machine (setup) works for hand sewing too, and a plain background, such as a sheet of white paper behind a dark needle, makes the eye easier to find. The background tip is ours, not a source's. Preference

Knotting and securing the ends

UKY's knot: wrap the thread end around your forefinger, let it overlap about 1/4 in (6 mm), roll the threads together off the finger with your thumb, then pull the twist down to the end to tighten it. UKY gives three ways to secure the start of a line of hand stitching: a knot, a couple of very small stitches in one place, or one stitch locked by looping the thread around the needle. To end, take a couple of small stitches in one place or a locked loop, then slide the needle about 1/2 in (1.3 cm) between the layers, bring it out and snip close to the fabric.

UKY says knots and thread ends sit hidden between the layers, behind a seam allowance or hem allowance. OSU agrees for permanent stitching and allows a visible knot only for basting. Convention

A thimble goes on the middle finger of the hand that holds the needle (UKY). Push the needle with its side or end. It matters most on thick layers: a coat front, a belt loop.

The core hand stitches

Eight stitches cover the repairs in this chapter and the hand hems in Hems. The sources describe them in similar terms and give slightly different measurements. An empty cell means that source gives no figure. The figures are conventions to aim at, not tolerances. Convention

Two rules run through all three sources. First, tension: UKY says the backstitch and prick stitch are pulled tight, while hemming stitches are secure but not so tight that they pucker the fabric. Second, the stitches that show on the right side should be tiny: one or two threads of the garment fabric for slip, blind and catch stitches.

The backstitch is the one to learn first. It looks like machine stitching on the right side, and the UT sheet calls it one of the strongest hand stitches. To sew it: bring the needle up, insert it 1/16 to 1/8 in behind where the thread came out, bring it up the same distance ahead, and keep inserting at the end of the last stitch. On the underside the stitches overlap and run twice as long. The sewing.org page (sewing.org, Hand Stitching Techniques) gives the same figures.

3. Buttons, hooks, eyes and snaps

A button that is loose is quicker to resew than one that is lost. The UT sheet says to resew a button as soon as its threads start to loosen and to check the others at the same time. Before anything else, look for a spare: UT notes that some garments carry an extra button sewn inside for this. If no match exists, UT suggests moving the bottom button to the empty place and putting an odd button at the bottom, near the hem, where it shows least.

Two kinds of button

A sew-through button (also called a flat button) has two or four holes through its face. A shank button has a solid face and a loop, the shank, on the back. CAERT's unit on buttons, hosted by the Illinois State Board of Education (CAERT, Buttons and Buttonholes, ISBE), says buttons used for decoration are usually sewn flat, and buttons that pass through a buttonhole are sewn with a thread shank. The UT sheet goes further and says buttons should be sewn on with a shank. The two agree for every button that fastens.

Why the shank, and how long

A thread shank is a short column of thread wound between the button and the fabric. It lifts the button so the buttonhole layer has room to sit under it. Without one, a button on thick fabric pulls the front into puckers when it is buttoned; the University of Idaho's bulletin says so directly. Physical principle

Make the shank the thickness of the layer that holds the buttonhole plus 1/16 to 1/8 in, the range the two sources that give a length cover. Convention

Measure the thickness of the layer that holds the buttonhole, at the buttonhole, with a seam gauge or ruler. Pinch it lightly; do not crush it. Then test: button the garment and look at the front. If it pulls or puckers at the button, the shank is short. If the button droops forward, it is long. Test it The buttonhole and shank calculator does the sums.

Sewing on a sew-through button with a shank

This sequence follows CAERT's steps, with the spacer chosen from the shank length above:

1. Thread a double thread and knot it. The Idaho bulletin doubles the thread before threading the needle, so each pass carries four strands and fewer passes are needed. Use all-purpose thread doubled, or button thread single.
2. Mark the place. Put the garment on a flat surface, close it, and push a pin through the buttonhole's outer end into the button layer. That is where the button goes. CAERT marks with a pin or a water-soluble marker.
3. Anchor the thread. Take a couple of small stitches at the mark, on the right side, where the button will cover them.
4. Lay a spacer across the button. CAERT uses a toothpick or heavy pin; Idaho lists pins, pencils and wooden matches, chosen by the shank length wanted. A spacer about as thick as the shank length works: a straight pin for a shirt, a toothpick or matchstick for a coat.
5. Sew through the holes, over the spacer. Up through one hole, down through the next, five or six times (CAERT). On a four-hole button, sew the two pairs as two bars or as a cross, matching the other buttons on the garment.
6. Remove the spacer and make the shank. Pull the button up to the top of the slack, bring the needle out between the button and the fabric, and wind the thread firmly around the stitches several times.
7. Secure it. Take the needle to the wrong side and finish with small stitches or a locked stitch, hidden under the button (CAERT says backstitch to secure; Idaho knots through the shank or on the underside).

On heavy fabric, the Idaho bulletin adds a reinforcing button: a small flat button directly under the outer button, on the wrong side, sewn on with the same stitches. It takes the strain that would otherwise tear the fabric. The UT sheet lists the same thing for outerwear. Convention If a button has torn out and left a hole, UT says to patch the fabric first, then resew the button (holes and tears).

Shank buttons

A shank button already has its shank. CAERT sews through the fabric and the shank with the same doubled thread, keeping stitches the same size and place, and finishes with a knot under the fabric. Idaho says to line the shank up with the buttonhole opening, so the buttonhole closes and is not held open. If the fabric is thick enough that even a shank button needs more room, Idaho holds a finger between the button and the garment while sewing and winds a thread shank under the button's own. Convention

Hooks and eyes, and snaps

These are hand jobs in both extension sources. New Mexico State's fasteners guide (NMSU, Fasteners Made Easy, Guide C-232, 2019) and the University of Kentucky's fasteners sheet (UK Cooperative Extension, Hooks and Eyes, Snaps, and Tape Fasteners, CT-MMB.029) agree on the main points:

• Which to use. NMSU: hooks and eyes for high-stress places such as a waistband; snaps only where there is little strain.
• Where. About 1/8 in (3 mm) from the edge. The hook and the snap's ball go on the overlap; the eye and the socket on the underlap. A straight eye is for edges that overlap; a loop eye for edges that just meet. UKY says to keep a waistband hook no more than 1/8 in back from the edge.
• Thread. UKY: a double strand of all-purpose thread, or a single strand of heavy-duty thread, on an area backed with interfacing.
• Stitch. Buttonhole stitch or overhand whipstitch, close together, around each ring; nothing shows on the right side. UKY says the buttonhole stitch with double thread is the more secure of the two.
• The extra stitches. NMSU adds three wrapped stitches over the hook's bill, so it lies flat, and a few stitches either side of a loop eye's U so it does not swing.
• Marking the socket. Sew the ball first, rub it with chalk (UKY also says soap), close the opening, and the chalk marks where the socket goes.

To replace one that came off, unpick any loose thread, check the fabric under it, and sew the new one in the same place. If the fabric has torn, back it with a small patch of interfacing or fabric first. Convention NMSU warns that no-sew snaps pierce the fabric and damage it, so place them with care, or use sew-on ones.

4. Split seams, falling hems, holes and belt loops

A split seam is a seam whose stitching has broken while the fabric on both sides is whole. It is one of the most common mending jobs, UT says, and the easiest remedy is the machine's straight stitch.

Find out why it split

The UT sheet lists the usual causes. Each one changes the repair:

Also look at the fabric along the stitching. If the fabric itself has torn or frayed away from the seam, it is a tear, not a split seam; see holes and tears.

By machine

UT's method, in order:

1. Remove the loose threads. Pull out or snip the broken ends so they do not jam under the foot. A seam ripper cuts threads only; keep its point away from the fabric.
2. Turn the garment inside out and pin the seam along its old line, the allowances together.
3. Stitch along the old seamline, starting and ending about 1/2 in (1.3 cm) into the sound stitching at each end of the break. That overlap is what keeps the old stitching from unravelling further.
4. Reinforce if the seam takes strain. UT stitches a second row 1/8 in (3 mm) from the first, inside the seam allowance.
5. Press the seam the way it was pressed before (pressing).

An underarm or a sleeve is a tube. A machine with a free arm lets the tube slide over the bed; your manual says whether yours has one. Product-specific If the seam is too small or too deep inside the garment for the foot to reach, sew it by hand.

By hand

UT: secure the thread 1/2 in from the break, in the sound stitching, and backstitch along the seamline with stitches 1/16 to 1/8 in long, through both layers, to 1/2 in past the other end. OSU calls the backstitch useful for hard-to-reach areas, which is where the hand method earns its place. A hand backstitch of 1/8 in is about the length of a 3 mm machine stitch.

A falling hem

The UT sheet gives four ways, and OSU's hemming sheet (OSU Extension, Hemming Skills, 4-H 320-32) adds the limits of the quick ones:

Test the web on a scrap of the garment's own fabric first, as OSU says. Test it

To resew a section by hand: press the hem back along its old fold, start at a seam or 1/2 in into the sound stitching, hide the knot inside the hem, and match the stitch to the hem. UT pairs a blind stitch with woven fabric that ravels and has a bound or overcast edge, a catch stitch with flat hems in pants, knits and heavy fabric, and a slip stitch with a turned-under edge. Take stitches about 1/4 to 3/8 in apart, catch one or two threads of the garment, and do not pull them tight (OSU). End 1/2 in into the sound stitching. Hems covers whole hems, marking and length (hand hems).

Holes and tears

UT says to repair rips, tears and holes as soon as possible: a worn spot becomes a small tear, and a small tear becomes a hole. The method depends on the size, the fabric and whether the repair may show. The decision is yours, so the sources' options are set out plainly.

"At least 1 in larger" is UT's wording. The sheet does not say whether it means 1 in larger across or 1 in beyond the damage on every side. We read it as across, the smaller figure, and it is a minimum: a patch that reaches sound fabric on every side is the point. Convention A patch on a worn knee usually needs to be much larger than the hole, because the fabric around it is thin too.

A darn rebuilds the fabric across a hole with thread or yarn. The George Washington University Museum and Textile Museum's description of microweave darning (GW Museum and The Textile Museum, Clothing Repair with Microweaving) gives three facts we can use: it builds a small woven patch of thread or yarn over the hole; its event asks for holes smaller than a quarter; and it works on wovens such as denim and on knits such as sweaters, but the mend does not stretch, so it does not suit thin garments that need to. That museum page is an event listing, and we use it only for those points. Combined with UKY's running stitch: lay rows of small running stitches across the hole and well into the sound fabric, then weave a second set at right angles through the first. That sequence is our assembly of the two descriptions, not a published method. Preference Work it on the wrong side of a knit, with thread or yarn close to the garment's weight, and keep the rows loose enough that the fabric around them lies flat.

A torn belt loop

No extension source we found covers belt loops. The repair below is assembled from two extension methods, the bar tack at a point of strain (OSU) and a backing patch at least 1 in larger than the tear (UT), and it is labelled that way. Preference

1. Look at what tore. If only the stitching gave way and the waistband fabric is whole, go to the bar-tack step. If the fabric under the loop end has torn, patch it first.
2. Back the tear. From the inside, place a patch of firm, similar-weight fabric at least 1 in larger than the tear, and stitch around it (UT), or fuse it if the waistband is easy to press. Inside a waistband the patch goes between the layers if you can reach, or on the inside face if you cannot.
3. Put the loop end back in its place. Fold its raw end under if it has frayed, and pin it where the old stitching marks show.
4. Sew it down with a bar tack. Use a doubled thread and a thimble. Take two or three long stitches across the loop end, through the loop and the waistband and patch, then cover them with closely spaced blanket stitches (OSU's bar tack).

5. What to take to a tailor

This manual teaches repairs, hems and the closures in Closures and elastic. It does not teach alterations, and the sorting column has a "tailor" answer for a reason. We found no current extension publication on alterations to cite, and the work below changes the fit or construction of a garment in ways that are hard to undo.

These are the questions we suggest taking with you; they are this manual's list, not a source's. Ask the authority

• What exactly will you change, and how? For example, a jeans zipper: will it be the same length and type, and will the original topstitching be matched?
• Will it show? Ask where new stitching or seams will be visible, and whether thread can be matched.
• Is there enough fabric? For letting out or lengthening, ask how much seam or hem allowance the garment has.
• Do you need a fitting? Bring the shoes and layers you will wear with it, as you would to mark a hem (Hems).
• What will it cost, and when will it be ready? Get the price before the work starts.
• For a coat or lined garment: will the lining be opened, and will it be closed the same way?

Write the answers in the item's notes on the mending log, with the date, and mark the row "tailor". If the price is more than the garment is worth to you, the row can still become "let go".

6. See it: Dana's coat and shirt See it

Free references for this chapter:

• UF/IFAS, Threading a Needle (4H413): two pages, with photographs of the wire-threader and palm methods.
• OSU Extension, Hand-Sewing Skills: a figure for every stitch in the table above, including the bar tack.
• UK Cooperative Extension, Hand Stitches: diagrams of the knot, the locked end and the catch, slip and blind catch stitches.
• UT Extension 4-H, Repair Your Clothes: the kit, the six questions, patches, buttons and split seams in four pages, with a repair inventory table like the mending log.

7. Practice: a kit, a sorted pile and two repairs Practice

Minimum: the kit ticked off, the pile sorted, a backstitch line on scrap, one button with a shank and one seam closed. If your pile is empty, sew the button on a scrap and log it as a practice row. Time: about 90 minutes. Materials: a hand needle (sharps), all-purpose thread, small scissors, pins, a seam gauge or ruler, a toothpick or matchstick, a cotton scrap about 6 by 10 in (15 by 25 cm), a button, and the items in your pile.

1. Gather the kit. Collect what is in the house into one box, then tick each item on the kit checklist. Needles, pins, scissors, thread and a seam ripper are enough to start.
2. Sort the pile. One row per item on the mending log: item, whose, damage, plan, worth it, status. Ask UT's six questions of each. Put anything on the tailor list in the tailor column now, so it stops waiting in the pile.
3. Thread, knot and backstitch. Cut 16 to 18 in of thread on a slant. Thread it by the direct method, then try the palm method once, even if the first worked. Knot it, and sew a 4 in (10 cm) line of backstitch on the folded scrap, through both layers. Measure five stitches with the seam gauge: aim for 1/16 to 1/8 in each. End with a locked stitch and run the tail 1/2 in between the layers.
4. Sew a button with a shank. Measure the buttonhole layer's thickness, work out the shank length, choose a spacer, and follow the steps under buttons. Button it and look for pulling.
5. Close a seam. On your own item, or on a scrap where you have unpicked 2 in of a seam: by machine with 1/2 in of overlap at each end and a second row 1/8 in inside, or by hand with backstitch.
6. Log it. Date each done row. Note the shank length and spacer you used.

8. Your sewing Your sewing

9. Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Does every item on the mending log have a plan, including "tailor" and "let go"?
• Is each knot and thread end hidden between layers, with nothing loose on the right side?
• Are your backstitches even, between about 1/16 and 1/8 in, and pulled snug without puckering?
• Does the button sit on a shank that matches the fabric thickness, so the front lies flat when buttoned?
• Does the seam repair overlap the sound stitching by about 1/2 in at both ends?
• Did you record the figure you used for shank length and patch size?

Worked example

Dana's repairs (fictional) against the criteria: both items have a plan and a status. Her button knots sit under the buttons; the shank was tested by buttoning, and the one that pulled was resewn at the longer UT length, so the log records which rule each button used. Her seam overlaps the old stitching by 1/2 in at both ends, with a second row; the backstitch practice line measured about 1/8 in per stitch. She has not yet sewn hooks or snaps, which her pile does not need, so those stay optional.

Common mistakes

• Thread too long. It tangles and knots on itself. Cut about 16 to 18 in.
• A button sewn flat on a coat. The front puckers when buttoned. Unpick it and resew with a shank.
• Stitching only the gap. A seam repair that starts and stops at the ends of the break unravels again from the old stitching. Overlap 1/2 in.
• Missing the cause. A seam that split because the garment is tight splits again; a knit seam restitched with a straight stitch pops again.
• Hem stitches pulled tight. They pucker the right side. Leave them relaxed.
• A fused repair on a fabric that melts. Test the iron and the fusible on a scrap first.

What is still unresolved

Whether a repair holds is settled by wear and washing, not by this chapter. Log a "provisional" status where you are not sure and revisit it after a few wears. Whether a tailor job is worth its price is your call, with the tailor's answers. Machine darning is named but not taught, because we could not read a free source for it.

10. Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• My kit is in one box and ticked on the kit checklist.
• Every item in my pile has a plan on the mending log, and at least one is marked done.
• I can thread a hand needle, knot it, backstitch and hide the end.
• I have sewn a button with a thread shank and checked it by buttoning.
• I have closed one split seam by machine or by hand.
• I have sewn a stitch sampler of the eight core stitches. (Go deeper; optional)
• I have sewn a hook and eye and a snap on a sample. (Go deeper; optional)