Threads
My trousers, as is their wont, have all decided to fall apart at the same time again, so I've been doing a bit of sewing this week. I'm not much good at sewing, but I offer up what little I know about the subject in the hope that others may find it useful. Most of this was taught me by stronglight, mi_guida, half_of_monty and susannahf, some of it I remember from school, some was taught me by my mother, and some of it I worked out for myself. It's enough for basic repairs - mending holes and burst seams, that kind of thing. To make clothes from scratch or to carry out more advanced adjustments, you'll need to find a more knowledgeable instructor.
You will need: one of those small sewing kits they sell in supermarkets for a quid, the kind of thing my mother calls a "houseif". You could assemble the bits yourself, but why bother? Sewing machines are much faster and neater, but they're more expensive, take up more space, and I can never get them to thread properly, no matter how closely I follow the Internet videos. You will also need something to patch with - cut up an old garment which is beyond saving. You may also need an incandescent lightbulb and some contact glue.
The phrase "A stitch in time saves nine" is really, literally true. Tiny holes turn into serious structural damage with disconcerting rapidity. If you can't spare the time to repair something right away, try to put it aside until you can to prevent further damage. In the worst case, duct tape can slow down the deterioration, but it's a temporary solution at best.
Once you've threaded the needle (possibly using your houseif's cunning needle-threading tool), you can move the eye along to the middle of the thread and tie the ends together, allowing you to sew with doubled thread. This is much less inclined to break, and has the advantage that the thread won't come out of the needle and force you to re-thread every five seconds. Unfortunately, it gets tangled much more easily, and you have to be careful not to twist it. In practice, this means that slip stitch (which goes |\|\|\|\ ) should not be used with doubled thread, as it introduces lots and lots of twists. Use running stitch (- - - - - ) or cross stitch (X X X X X X) instead. Running stitch is much faster than cross stitch, but less secure. If you're going to use running stitch, double back on yourself for one stitch (this is called "back stitch", imaginatively enough) every half-dozen stitches or so to limit the damage that a broken thread will cause. You can do half a dozen stitches at once, by poking the needle through several folds of cloth and pulling it through, though this is less neat than doing them one at a time.
There isn't such a fast way of doing cross stitch, but if you stitch in a consistent pattern you can get into a rhythm and then it goes much faster. Assuming the line of stitches goes from left to right, use the following routine. From bottom left go outside to top right, then inside to bottom right, then outside to top left, then inside to the bottom left of the next cross.
I used to spend ages tying huge stopper knots in an attempt to stop my thread pulling through, but there are better ways, especially if you're using doubled thread. Tie a simple overhand knot in the end of your thread, then make a single running stitch near where you want to start, being careful not to pull the knot through. Now stitch over the first stitch a couple of times (re-using the same entry and exit holes). You can now continue with your sewing, secure in the knowledge that your thread will not pull through - the knot is only needed for the first couple of stitches, and you only need to be careful for them. To finish off at the other end, reverse the process: do three stitches in one place, then pass the thread through one of the loops and back through itself to create a knot. Then snip off the loose end and/or bury it inside the fabric.
If you've got a hole in a garment, your options are basically patching and darning. Darning is a process of weaving new cloth by hand. Stretch the holey part of the garment over the lightbulb - it doesn't have to be a lightbulb, and in fact you can get wooden "darning mushrooms" that are purpose-built for this, but lightbulbs have the ideal curvature. Start off as above (using a single thread), then thread back and forth over the hole, north-south, south-north, until you've created a pattern like this: |||||||||. Now comes the tricky bit. You want to create a set of east/west threads that thread over and under the north/south threads you just made. Tie off a couple of times to secure your thread, then go over-under-over-under-over-under until you reach the other side of the hole, then thread through the cloth on the other side and return, going over every thread that you just went under, and under every thread that you just went over. The lightbulb will help you a lot here. Repeat until you've filled up the entire hole with new thread. You will at some point lose count, and end up with an imperfect weave: don't sweat it. Darning is astonishingly tedious for anything but tiny holes.
Patching is much easier. Cut out a rectangle of spare cloth that's big enough to cover the hole (plus some extra - the cloth immediately around the hole is probably weakened too, and it will happily tear along the line of stitching). You then sew the edges of the patch to the garment, and (for bonus style points, and to prevent further fraying) sew the edges of the hole to the patch. Put the patch inside to make it less obvious, or outside to show off your funky creativity, whichever you prefer. First, though, you need to loosely secure the patch to the garment so you can sew it on straight. The standard way to do this is with "tacking": a line of widely-spaced running stitch around the edge, that you later remove. But if (like me) you suffer from Wobbly Sewing, this approach presents an obvious chicken/egg problem. These days, I use glue. Superglue works and is fast, but it dries hard and is a pain to sew through. Contact adhesive (the stuff that you leave to dry for five minutes before pressing the surfaces together) is ideal, though it doesn't appear to work on Cordura. You can also get stuff called "hemming web", which is fabric glue that you activate with the heat of an iron. Note that glue will eventually abrade away and/or wash out, so you do have to do the stitching. Sorry about that. Cross stitch works well for patches, as the crosses pass over the edges of the patch and hold them down.
Sewing's time-consuming, but it's also very satisfying, like most repair work.
You will need: one of those small sewing kits they sell in supermarkets for a quid, the kind of thing my mother calls a "houseif". You could assemble the bits yourself, but why bother? Sewing machines are much faster and neater, but they're more expensive, take up more space, and I can never get them to thread properly, no matter how closely I follow the Internet videos. You will also need something to patch with - cut up an old garment which is beyond saving. You may also need an incandescent lightbulb and some contact glue.
The phrase "A stitch in time saves nine" is really, literally true. Tiny holes turn into serious structural damage with disconcerting rapidity. If you can't spare the time to repair something right away, try to put it aside until you can to prevent further damage. In the worst case, duct tape can slow down the deterioration, but it's a temporary solution at best.
Once you've threaded the needle (possibly using your houseif's cunning needle-threading tool), you can move the eye along to the middle of the thread and tie the ends together, allowing you to sew with doubled thread. This is much less inclined to break, and has the advantage that the thread won't come out of the needle and force you to re-thread every five seconds. Unfortunately, it gets tangled much more easily, and you have to be careful not to twist it. In practice, this means that slip stitch (which goes |\|\|\|\ ) should not be used with doubled thread, as it introduces lots and lots of twists. Use running stitch (- - - - - ) or cross stitch (X X X X X X) instead. Running stitch is much faster than cross stitch, but less secure. If you're going to use running stitch, double back on yourself for one stitch (this is called "back stitch", imaginatively enough) every half-dozen stitches or so to limit the damage that a broken thread will cause. You can do half a dozen stitches at once, by poking the needle through several folds of cloth and pulling it through, though this is less neat than doing them one at a time.
There isn't such a fast way of doing cross stitch, but if you stitch in a consistent pattern you can get into a rhythm and then it goes much faster. Assuming the line of stitches goes from left to right, use the following routine. From bottom left go outside to top right, then inside to bottom right, then outside to top left, then inside to the bottom left of the next cross.
I used to spend ages tying huge stopper knots in an attempt to stop my thread pulling through, but there are better ways, especially if you're using doubled thread. Tie a simple overhand knot in the end of your thread, then make a single running stitch near where you want to start, being careful not to pull the knot through. Now stitch over the first stitch a couple of times (re-using the same entry and exit holes). You can now continue with your sewing, secure in the knowledge that your thread will not pull through - the knot is only needed for the first couple of stitches, and you only need to be careful for them. To finish off at the other end, reverse the process: do three stitches in one place, then pass the thread through one of the loops and back through itself to create a knot. Then snip off the loose end and/or bury it inside the fabric.
If you've got a hole in a garment, your options are basically patching and darning. Darning is a process of weaving new cloth by hand. Stretch the holey part of the garment over the lightbulb - it doesn't have to be a lightbulb, and in fact you can get wooden "darning mushrooms" that are purpose-built for this, but lightbulbs have the ideal curvature. Start off as above (using a single thread), then thread back and forth over the hole, north-south, south-north, until you've created a pattern like this: |||||||||. Now comes the tricky bit. You want to create a set of east/west threads that thread over and under the north/south threads you just made. Tie off a couple of times to secure your thread, then go over-under-over-under-over-under until you reach the other side of the hole, then thread through the cloth on the other side and return, going over every thread that you just went under, and under every thread that you just went over. The lightbulb will help you a lot here. Repeat until you've filled up the entire hole with new thread. You will at some point lose count, and end up with an imperfect weave: don't sweat it. Darning is astonishingly tedious for anything but tiny holes.
Patching is much easier. Cut out a rectangle of spare cloth that's big enough to cover the hole (plus some extra - the cloth immediately around the hole is probably weakened too, and it will happily tear along the line of stitching). You then sew the edges of the patch to the garment, and (for bonus style points, and to prevent further fraying) sew the edges of the hole to the patch. Put the patch inside to make it less obvious, or outside to show off your funky creativity, whichever you prefer. First, though, you need to loosely secure the patch to the garment so you can sew it on straight. The standard way to do this is with "tacking": a line of widely-spaced running stitch around the edge, that you later remove. But if (like me) you suffer from Wobbly Sewing, this approach presents an obvious chicken/egg problem. These days, I use glue. Superglue works and is fast, but it dries hard and is a pain to sew through. Contact adhesive (the stuff that you leave to dry for five minutes before pressing the surfaces together) is ideal, though it doesn't appear to work on Cordura. You can also get stuff called "hemming web", which is fabric glue that you activate with the heat of an iron. Note that glue will eventually abrade away and/or wash out, so you do have to do the stitching. Sorry about that. Cross stitch works well for patches, as the crosses pass over the edges of the patch and hold them down.
Sewing's time-consuming, but it's also very satisfying, like most repair work.