No one wants to throw clothes away because of one small (or large) tear, especially when the rest of the article is in perfect condition.

This is 10 minute mending. Don’t throw these away!

The most common problem is a tear along the seam. When this happens you are in luck because these are earily fixable without being noticeable.

Look at these recent repairs that have come into the shop.

Snowpant repair

It looks like someone bent over while sledding and the seam popped out. But don’t worry and don’t throw the snowpants away. Notice how the hole is in the seam. This could be repaired from the outside by a small noticeable top stitch or from the inside. If the lining is covering the hole, just take out a few stitches of the lining to access the seam to the outer layer of snowpants. Sew the torn seam up and then re-stitch the lining.

Tips for when the hole is not in the seam

I wish I

I wish I had snapped a picture of this jacket before I repaired it. There was a hole in the front where it had gotten burned from a camp fire. These jackets are made of synthetic, plastic like material so often they are not resistent to heat and could melt. That is what happened to this one. I wasn’t sure how I was going to repair it without it looking messy. Finding fabric to match isn’t easy. But I looked in the pockets and found that the pocket used the same material as the outside of the coat. So I cut out material from the pocket to use for the front patch and then made a new pocket.

Under arm repairs

This jacket popped a seam under the arm. It wasn’t accessible by machine without removing a lot of the lining so I opted to stitch it closed with tiny hand stitches using heavy weight nylon thread.

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A great book on mending that will help you practice your handstitching on repair projects is Mending Matters

When the collar separates

This coat has an attaching hood that zips on at the collar. However, the piece holding the zipper onto the coat began to fall off. It appears that just one thread came lose and began to pull it all apart. With some matching thread and top stitching I secured the collar and zipper and the coat was as good as new.

Become a pro at altering and mending your own clothes. Check out this post on how to alter your own clothes.