Sewing, Repairing and Reducing Waste

Looking to make an everyday carry sewing kit that I can have in my backpack for emergency sewing jobs. Other than a needle, thread, and scissors of some kind, any other suggested items and why they would be needed?

I have some scoop neck button down dresses and rompers that I don’t really like the neckline on. Anyone have a good resources for modifying necklines? Any recommendations that are especially easy to go to from a scoop neck? (V neck comes to mind?).

This sort of neckline

Knelt down to fasten my gumboots today before work and noticed they've started to crack around the base of my big toes, which sucks since I've only used them about 30 times. Might do a warranty claim but also want to extend the life of these as much as I can. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hey gang, I was hoping I could pick some people's brains on this. I have a singer rocketeer I'm restoring and part of that is that I replaced the foot pedal with one off an old alco. This inadvertently diagnosed the issue with the alco as being the foot pedal. When you press down, the motor hums but seizes until you get about half way, then it runs at Moc 2 until you ease back.

There any way to fix this or do I just need a new one?

The zipper on my bag stopped working about a year ago. I had been trying to use it anyway but things kept falling out. I recently learned that hand stitching isn't that hard, so I went out and got a new zipper. Here's the old zipper for reference

The seams were starting to go, so finally got out the thread and needle and sewed it back up!

After going through a billion 11 sharps as they were the only ones my mother used, I finally found a larger size as my eyes can not thread those anymore.

I mean, if I'm not gonna have a good match anyway might as well embrace the fact it doesn't match lol

I thought it's going to go the way of the dodo since the plastic fabric is very weird. My girlfriend thought differently and somehow fixes it!

Cool stuff!

(just visualize a very rough, thick, quilt/rug to go on the floor)

I've sewn a bunch of old jean pieces together, mostly to learn how to sew jean material with a twin needle (only broke one so far) on my cheap sewing machine, but I didn't think the project through completely.

There are two problems.

1. It seems the quilt batting I can find around here is pretty thin (1cm) and pretty expensive: CHF18 (US$23) per meter, and it is only 150cm wide. So to double or triple it up to get some decent thickness, for an ~84cm × ~84cm top and my scrap project is starting to look a tad expensive (like near enough to half the cost of a sewing machine). Any thoughts on stuffing material (it's just a dog bed after all) - or should I just suck it up and buy the batting? I've looked at using a rug purchased from a low-end Ikea-type store, but they seemed too thin and too expensive - and it goes against the reducing waste idea, right? I thought maybe I could piece together a second layer of batting from the remnant of one purchased meter, to get a bed that's at least a couple of centimeters thick, but wasn't sure how much integrity a separate strip would have when just tacked in (see problem 2). Or I guess I could cut the cover down to under 75cm × 75cm; it's not that big of a dog. Any feedback?

2. I was planning on using an old shower curtain for the bottom under cover, with through tack stitches, instead of buttons, at the checkerboard corners: no problem there I think. But making a bag, to put the filler in, by sewing it inside out leaves one edge different than the others (as the last closing seam) when it's turned right-side out. How do quilts normally get closed on all sides?

Hello! I need some advice on how to alter these pants, any tips or do on how to make them larger? I'm fairly new to sewing.

I found these cargo pants this summer on a second hand and I could just get them on me! So I brought a second pair of similar fabric so that I can make them bigger.

Ive added a few pins on where I plan to make a dart as thats the only space with no pockets that go down the tights.

I think I need to add around 6cm by the waist and 3cm by the hip and then I'll let it taper down to the knee seam. Does that sound like an okay play?

Here are some more pics that are overly bright since the pants are black:

Front:

Back:

Side:

Made out of leftover quilting fabric and a reclaimed linen duvet cover! He loves them and his cousins want sushi pants now too

I can sew and darn, and knit from scratch, but I've never re-knit a hole before.

I recently purchased a second-hand leather jacket, and the lining has significant holes in it where the pockets are. This is because the pockets extend about 2cm further down then the lining would allow.

Naturally I would want to fix these holes and stop the fraying, but I'm not sure how I could go about this. I don't have any suitable material to patch it, and wouldn't want to cause further damage. Having a patch that dangles below the hem to accommodate the pocket is undesirable, but losing pocket space instead would be a bummer. I'm also uncertain how well I could attach a different material to the existing lining, especially with my limited skills.

It should be noted that there is still some material attached to the leather along the hem of the jacket, which could be used to attach a patch.

Any recommendations would be appreciated, as I've never had to do anything like this before.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/31929482

Yes I patched them myself

Yes I know the patches stick out

And yes I do wear them out and about

EDIT: The back also has a few patches for those curious.

Pic of the back

This is a lightweight wool shirt, smartwool brand. I think it's 90 or 100 percent wool, I forgot to photograph the tag.

I use it as a base layer while camping, so looks aren't that important, but I don't want it to fall apart.

I got a couple of snags on my last trip, and I poked most of them back in without issue, these two were bigger and I tried stretching the fabric slightly to pull them in. I did it gently, but they both broke 🫠

Should I use a patch? Or sew a few loose stitches to hold things together? Or just leave it alone?

The underside of the shirt is bright orange, the hole is only the top layer, if that makes sense?

Thanks!

Once a month between April and October, a group of stitchers takes to the streets of Edinburgh, making themselves comfortable on camping chairs decorated with hand-embroidered banners inviting people to #stitchitdontditchit. Equipped with sewing baskets and mending skills, they repair their garments in public and teach interested passers-by how to do the same.

Greetings!

I almost always end up with jeans with holes in the bottom of the front pockets, because I wear a lot of stuff in my pockets all the time. The pockets give up way before the jeans themselves, but I don't want to stop wearing a perfectly fine pair of jeans, just because the pockets have given up, so I need to fix them.

In the past I have fixed the issue by folding the pockets above where the holes are, and then sewing across, so as to create a new bottom of the pocket. However, this means I lose pocket volume, which is not what I want.

So, I've been looking at iron on patches for fixing denim, and thinking that might do the trick. I have no experience with iron on patches in general, so wanted to ask if anyone has experience with these?

• Are they easy to apply?
• Do they last, both in terms of their ability to stay put where they were applied, and to wear?

Thanks for sharing any experience you've had with iron on patches for this purpose.

I buy most of my clothes second hand, the quality is much better for the price but when I look for something precise, too replace something wear out for example, rather than a new piece for my wardrobe, it take me a lot of time to find what I look for. Meanwhile, fast fashion brand sells lots of clothing that seems exactly what I need except that the quality is fast fashion quality :(

Is there any general advices you have to improve bad quality clothing?

Here is two specific examples that really disturb my shopping experience:

• T-shirt that have not T, because the cloth piece under the arm has been removed. The t-shirt looks fine, folded or wear with your arms lying against your body but as soon a you raise them, in a T, or high to reach some high shelf, the whole t-shirt raises with them
• Long sleeves than a just long enough to keep your arms lying against your body. If you go for a crazy move, like using your hand, you hand up with almost 3/4 sleeves.

What do you think? Is there anything that can be done to improve these type of badly cut clothes? What about all the others? With loose stitches, bad made buttons... You know what fast fashion looks like.

Hi everyone!

Not sure if this is the right place but I've been looking to buy a sewing machine recently and haven't really been sure about what to get or what to look out for.

Does anyone have any recommendations? I've used some before, but never owned one. Don't know what a good budget might be but I'm happy to spend a couple hundred if need be? Some googling seems to show that to be reasonable, but I'm not sure if I'm getting ripped off (on either quality or price).

Thanks for any advice!

My first attempt doesn’t look as nice, since I was trying to sew down the last loops of the warp one at a time instead of taking them all off the hooks at once and then sewing them down.

I think this one turned out alright, though! I just used some variegated craft thread that looked about the same size as pearl thread, but was cheaper and came in a variety pack.

Great and detailed article for those who have self-drafted or want to modify an existing pattern.

Cross/re-post of something I saved years ago :)

This is a cross-post, I thought it was neat :)

hell yeah