The ten-dollar kit
A pack of assorted needles, polyester thread in black, white, navy and gray, small sharp scissors, a few straight pins and safety pins, and a seam ripper cover nearly everything. Spare buttons come stitched to the care label or in a small envelope on the tag, and they all belong in one jar.
Sewing on a button
- Cut about 24 inches of thread, pass it through the needle, and knot the two ends together so you are sewing with a doubled strand.
- Take one small stitch on the outside of the fabric exactly where the button belongs, so that the knot ends up hidden beneath it.
- Lay a toothpick across the top of the button and sew over it, up through one hole and down through the next, six times for each pair of holes, copying the pattern on the other buttons.
- Pull out the toothpick, lift the button, and wind the thread tightly five times around the slack stitches underneath to form a shank.
- Push the needle through to the back, take three tiny stitches in one spot, pass the needle through the last loop to knot it, and trim.
The shank is the step most people skip. It leaves room for the layer of cloth that buttons over the top, and without it the fabric puckers and the thread soon wears through.
A fallen hem
Press the fold back into place with an iron and pin it. Use a single strand of thread that matches the garment. Pick up only two or three threads of the outer fabric, run the needle half an inch through the folded edge, and repeat along the gap. Keep the stitches loose, because a tight hem shows as a row of dimples on the outside. Safety pins fastened from the inside will get you through a day.
An open seam
Turn the garment inside out and begin half an inch back, in the stitching that still holds. Follow the old stitch line with a backstitch: bring the needle up an eighth of an inch ahead, then go back down where the previous stitch ended. It is the strongest stitch made by hand. Finish half an inch past the gap and knot off.
Note Torn cloth, broken zippers, linings and leather belong with a tailor. Most dry cleaners take alterations, and hemming trousers usually costs ten to twenty-five dollars.
