The next two weeks are all about clothing. How to fix it, how to buy it, how to launder it, and a little bit about how to make it.

Today I going to talk about basic repair. Buttons and Hems.

Buttons

Most items that you purchase these days come with at least one, and usually a few extra buttons. I strongly suggest that you select a place for these “extras” and keep them all in it. A used cookie tin, a fancy little box, heck, even a large ziplock bag works. That way you will know where they are when you need one.

If you want to take the extra time, before you even wear the clothing, go over the buttons (with a matching thread of course) and sew them on even more securely…there is a reason that you are given extra buttons.

To sew on a button, thread the needle, knot the end of the thread and take several passes through the materal and the button. Then, push the needle out so it come through the material, but NOT through the button and make several tight loops around the base of the button, between the button itself and the material, that will give you some fastening room. Then make several more passes through both the material and the button itself and tie off the thread on the inside of the garment.

Hems

If you are not blessed with the gift of height, then you may have several pairs of pants which are a bit ratty around the hemline, because you keep stepping on them. A quick fix for this is to fold up the hemline (once is good, if you need to fold more than once, I suggest you cut…very carefully…then fold so as to not have a lot of bulk) then stitch quickly around the bottom.

If you are blessed with a larger height than the norm, you may want to do the reverse. You can usually let pant hems out ONCE, or at lease lengthen them a little bit more.

If you are going to hem (or lengthen) skirts, I strongly suggest you get some help. It is almost impossible to make sure you get an even hem doing it yourself.