Preferred way to repair clothes?

Anagor

Anagor

New member
Just curious ... what's your preferred way to repair clothes? Sewing, patching, using safety pins or other quick'n'dirty ways? Do you keep your clothes in good condition or are you wearing them until they fall apart?
 
Sewing with dental floss, all the way. Safety pins will just pull out of the fabric and damage the clothing more over time, plus they might pop open and poke you. I just finished repairing my favorite pair of pants which I've had for 8 years and made many modifications to. I've gotten pretty good at hand stitching, it takes some practice and patience to get skilled at. I was just thinking about starting a thread for folks to post pics of their sewing projects.
 

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Stiv Rhodes said:
Sewing with dental floss, all the way. Safety pins will just pull out of the fabric and damage the clothing more over time, plus they might pop open and poke you. I just finished repairing my favorite pair of pants which I've had for 8 years and made many modifications to. I've gotten pretty good at hand stitching, it takes some practice and patience to get skilled at. I was just thinking about starting a thread for folks to post pics of their sewing projects.
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Seriously, I cannot sew or mend at all. I’d be inclined to grab some cheap used pants and shirts at thrift stores, but would at least attempt to repair coats or equipment with a needle and thread. Maybe one of those large awls that uses thick waxed thread which can handle light leather work/ heavy canvas.
 
Stiv Rhodes said:
Sewing with dental floss, all the way. Safety pins will just pull out of the fabric and damage the clothing more over time, plus they might pop open and poke you.
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Yes, I avoid using safety pins in places where there is a lot of stress and where it could hurt, like back of the jeans where you sit upon. There I always use thread or dental floss. But I like to use safety pins in other places.

Stiv Rhodes said:
I just finished repairing my favorite pair of pants which I've had for 8 years and made many modifications to. I've gotten pretty good at hand stitching, it takes some practice and patience to get skilled at.
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Yeah, it really needs practice and patience. I kind of lack the latter, when I sew it's just a quick'n'dirty stitching which never holds for long.

Cool pants, btw. :)
 
If you can't sew well, or even if you can, the Speedy Stitcher sewing awl (made In USA) can do perfect lock-stitches fast. i used one to make a teepee out of the largest tarp Amazon sells. There is a tiny bit of learning to use it, but very easy, and very fast, once you get the idea. Also very easy to thread for us old folks.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FXT814/

For clothing, or really most things that are not thick canvas, you want the small needles, aka the #4 needle, aka "SMALL STRAIGHT NEEDLE, #130":

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B9ISBF8/

Will work fine with dental floss for those essential Punk Points, or waxed, or regular, thread. The heavy waxed thread it comes with is very good for teepee making and canvas sail repair.

The awl is also probably good for giving stick and pokes, and definitely good for close-range self defense.
 
Tried using a sewing machine. Only problem is if it's that bad it needs to be sewn, it's usually fucked and will re-rip. For SOME REASON, this past year I've ripped up tons of jeans, even though I've never done so in the past (maybe because I always wore sweatpants?) Also, wearing the same jeans for months will do that. Took 'em to a tailor recently and that guy knew what tf he was doing.
 
superphoenix said:
Tried using a sewing machine. Only problem is if it's that bad it needs to be sewn, it's usually fucked and will re-rip.
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Yep, made that experience as well.

Tbh I like worn out clothes distressed by wear and tear. So when there are rips here and there I wouldn't sew it. Then the rips get bigger and I would still not sew. And then there are gaping holes everywhere and then I would sew but it's too much an effort and it would re-rip anyway. So then I just try to get a new (used) pair of pants somewhere.

A tailor could possibly repair those fucked up jeans but I recon it would cost more then a brand new pair of jeans, lol.
 
Glover's needle and embroidery floss is my favorite method. I've learned I need to make the patches bigger than I think they need to be (better to have a few big patches then a lot of small ones--less weak points) and overlap part of the new patch over the old. My clothes are stained, but it's hard to tell so much with all the patches.
 

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I keep my clothes until they're no longer useful as functional clothing. Until they are threadbare in multiple places and cannot be repaired. It's less wasteful that way! :] plus, usually the longer I wear a peice of clothing, the more comfortable it gets to me ;)

I fortunately have access to a sewing machine so i use that to sew patches and rips most of the time. I have recently started trying to use glue to glue on. Hard to sew knee patches, and stack books on top of the patch. While the glue dries, with a peice of cardboard in the leg to keep the leg from getting glued shut lol.
 
I can hand mend rips and put patches on but for tops I usually have to chuck them before I even need to mend them cause the sweat smell won’t wash out after awhile and I hate it personally lol I’m stinky for a women 😂 I buy secondhand clothes. Though I have cut the stinky sleeves off tops before which means I can wear them for longer haha
 
Folks have made fun of me for this, but I use Bish's Original Tear Mender Fabric & Leather Adhesive. You can get 6oz. for about $10 and I always have to throw the bottle out every couple of years - it lasts a while but forms a skin inside the bottle eventually.

This is an organic glue that bonds in 30 seconds with just hand pressure then dries enough to perform in an hour. Washes off everything but fabric similar to rubber cement - you can rub it off without water. Be sure that you air dry your fabric and not stuff it in your sack waiting to dry. If you aren't careful, it can be kinda unsightly - it bleeds through denim and dries white, for example. I use it to patch the crotch of my jeans & canvas shorts... I cut a piece of same/similar material and just glue it on like I'm 5 years old with a bottle of Elmers. Because it doesn't dry clear, I don't use it for thin fabrics like shirts... and if you're going to do a heavy-duty glue up on a fabric pack or canvas, I would let it dry for 24 hours before expecting a full strength bond.

They make smaller bottles too that would be easy to stuff in a pack. I'm not trying to convince anyone this stuff is better than sewing, but I use it because my sewing game is weak.
 
@lazerskull Tenacious Tape is great for synthetics, I've used it on my tent and backpack. They say it works on non-oiled leather so hopefully it'll do the trick on your seats.
 
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