Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen
Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen are folk-remedy experts and home tipsters based in New York City. They have spent decades collecting “cures from the cupboard” and are authors of several books, including Secret Food Cures.
Sewing is one of the most useful skills to know. Even if you’re not making elaborate costumes, or launching your own clothing line, knowing how to sew basic elements of clothing like hems, buttons, and pockets can save you in a pinch. It can also make that slightly too large thrift store find fit perfectly.
In this excerpt from the book Household Magic by Joan and Lydia Wilen the authors provide tips and tricks so that when a clothing emergency comes up you’ll know what you need to do.
Whether it’s a torn hem or it’s a popped button, our aim here is to keep you in stitches—ba-da-DUM! And these suggestions should help.
◆ Use a bar of soap or a thick candle as a pincushion. When you take a pin or needle out of the soap or candle, it should glide through the fabric with the greatest of ease.
◆ If you didn’t do the soap or candle thing, and you have oily hair, carefully (very carefully) rub the needle or pin through your hair and see if that helps it glide through the fabric.
◆ Keep a magnet handy (you may want to glue it to the end of a yardstick), and use it at the end of a sewing session to attract any stray needles and pins.
◆ To sharpen the tip of a pin or needle, rub it with an emery board.
◆ Make a pincushion by stuffing a little drawstring bag or plastic bag with plain (no soap) steel-wool pads. Each time you stick pins or needles in or out, you’ll be sharpening them.
◆ Dip the end of the thread in nail polish and let it dry. The dry thread will be stiff and easy to put through the eye of the needle.
◆ Squirt a bit of hair spray on the end of a piece of thread—this will stiffen it and make it easier to use.
◆ As soon as you’ve threaded the needle—but before you knot the bottom—sew through a fabric-softener sheet. This will make the thread behave better as you sew with it.
◆ Keep threads from unraveling and tangling by putting a rubber band around each spool of thread. Be sure to tuck the loose thread end under the rubber band to hold it in place.
Whether you use a ruler to measure the number of inches to turn up a hem, or a yardstick to mark the inches from the floor to the hemline, make the marking process easier by placing a rubber band around the exact line on the ruler or yardstick.
Paper clips or spring-type clothespins can be more convenient than pins when pinning up a hem…and you cannot prick yourself with a clothespin.
If your jeans are too long and you’re not into the style of having shredded hems, consider an easy way out. Rather than dealing with the difficult chore of denim hemming (say that three times fast!), turn up each hem, iron the folded edge, and then put on duct tape.
Duct tape now comes in many colors, so you can match the tape to your jeans or other clothing…not that anyone will see it. The duct tape should stay stuck on your clothes through many washings.
You pull an innocent-looking thread and half your hem comes down…or you get your heel caught in your hem, making that section of hem hang down. When these mini-emergencies occur, you can do a temporary repair, depending on what’s available. Double-sided tape is great, but chances are, you’d sooner have needle and thread around. There’s always a quick fix with duct tape, safety pins or staples. If you’re going to staple a hem, be sure to do it so that the open side of each staple is on the outside, rather than next to your skin where it can scratch you or snag your socks or hose.
The Ghost of Hemline Past
If you lengthen a hemline and don’t want the previous hem to show, here’s what to do—on the underside of the fabric, gently sponge distilled white vinegar on the old crease
Fold the garment where you want the new hem to be, place a damp cloth over the fold, then press it with a hot iron. The old hemline will disappear, the new hem will be nicely set.
If you work off a spool of thread when basting (using long stitches to temporarily hold fabric layers or seams in place until the final sewing is completed…at which time the basting stitches will be removed), you won’t have to stop to rethread your needle. This may be one of those “Hey, why didn’t I think of that?” moments.
Waistband Expander
When your favorite skirt has gotten a bit too tight around the waist, get a piece of oneinch-wide elastic. Determine how many inches you need to extend the waistband and cut the length of the elastic accordingly.
Then using a button that’s the same size as the button that’s already on the waistband, sew it on one end of the piece of elastic. On the other end of the elastic, cut a buttonholesize slit. The waistband button goes through that slit, while the button on the elastic goes in the original buttonhole.
Of course, it may be easier to just go on a diet than to bother with all of this!
◆ It’s important to keep your sewing machine well-oiled. It’s also important to make sure the oil doesn’t stain the fabric you’re sewing. So, after each oiling, treat a few sheets of paper towel as if they’re fabric, and stitch some rows until you’re sure that all of the excess oil has been absorbed.
◆ To prevent the sewing machine pedal from sliding around on a hardwood floor, place the pedal on a computer mouse pad or on a drink coaster.
◆ To sharpen a sewing-machine needle, take a sheet of fine sandpaper and stitch a few rows of thread.
◆ For more accurate sizing, be sure to iron pattern sections before laying them on the fabric. A wrinkled pattern piece can change the size of a garment.
◆Double-over your thread before threading a needle. Next, using a big-eyed needle, thread it, then double the thread again and knot it.
Think of the time you’ll save. You’ll be sewing with four strands of thread and will only have to go through the buttonhole a couple of times to secure the button in place.
Sewing Buttons on Thick Fabric
Do you know how, on some jackets or coats, it looks as though the buttons are falling off, but they really aren’t? A bit of slack is purposely put between the button and the garment—it allows the garment to lie flat when buttoned.
Here’s how to create that slack between the button and the fabric—first, anchor the thread starting from the underside. Pull the needle through the fabric and sew two tiny stitches on top of each other. Then place the button over the stitches and place a toothpick or kitchen matchstick on top of the button. Bring the needle up through one hole, over the toothpick and down through the other hole.
Repeat the “up, over and down” two or three times, ending under the button. Discard the toothpick and wind the thread around the underside of the button a few times. Push the needle through the fabric, make a couple of stitches, then knot and cut the thread.
◆ Dab a little glue or clear nail polish on the thread in the middle of each button and it will be less likely to pop off—no matter how much you eat for dessert.
◆ Children’s clothes and some types of work clothes often test the endurance of buttons. However, you can sew buttons on with dental floss, and they’ll pass the test with flying colors (and no cavities!).
◆ When sewing four-holed buttons, first sew two holes as though they were the only holes on the button. After you finish off these two holes with a knot, then sew the other two holes.
That way, if the thread on two of the holes tears or comes loose, the other two holes (which were sewn separately) will keep the button from falling off.
◆ If you need to reattach a popped button and there’s no needle and thread around, see if you can find a twist tie, like the kind used to close loaves of bread, garbage bags or supermarket produce bags.
Let water run on the twist tie for a few seconds and remove the paper. If it’s a plastic twist tie, cut off the plastic. The object here is to use the piece of wire. Thread it through the button’s holes and twist it closed.
◆ To guard against cutting or tearing a garment when removing a button, slip a comb under the button. Then slide a knife, razor or box cutter between the button and comb to cut the thread.
◆ This is just plain ol’ common sense—store buttons in a glass jar or plastic case so that you can see what you have.
◆ String all the same-color buttons on a long piece of dental floss…or put sets of buttons on big safety pins.
◆ Replace a zipper’s missing pull tab with a silver, gold or any other appropriately-colored paper clip.
◆ Squirt a small puff of foam shaving cream on your finger and spread it over the teeth of the stuck zipper. The cream should lubricate the area, allowing you to unzip the problem.
◆ To prevent a patch from shrinking after it’s been sewn on a garment, wash the patch fabric before attaching it.
◆ Before sewing on a patch, attach it in place with a straight pin or a few dabs of watersoluble liquid glue (such as Elmer’s). The patch will stay in place while you stitch it on. And the glue will wash away when the garment is laundered.
◆ If you want to cover a hole with an iron-on cloth patch, be sure to place a piece of aluminum foil under the hole. It will keep the patch from sticking to the ironing-board cover.
◆ How’s this for irony? To remove an iron-on patch, just iron it with a hot iron—it will peel right off.
Padded Patch for Work Pants
This is a good idea if you’re doing any on-your knees cleaning, gardening or just crawling around on the floor.
Take that old, comfortable-but-less-than flattering pair of pants out of the thrift-store donation bag. Sew a patch on each knee, leaving the top side of the patch open…as though you’ve sewn a pocket on each knee.
Then, in each pocket, place a sponge…or a substantial shoulder pad…or a piece of foam rubber. These protective pads are easy to remove and will make a big difference in your on-the-knee cleaning or gardening endurance.
At the first sign of a pocket wearing thin (you know that thin, threadbare feeling), reinforce it with iron-on tape (available at sewing-supply and crafts stores).
For more tips and tricks for daily living purchase your own copy of Household Magic from Bottomlineinc.com today.
