Wednesday, April 12, 2017

How to Mend Pants

My children are the most supportive and helpful young adults imaginable.  Somehow they knew that I wanted to write tutorials about how to use a sewing machine to make simple clothing repairs and they brought me torn garments just so I would have something to show you!  Aren't they the greatest?

So, courtesy of my children, I bring you:



Dear Child o' Mine:

If I understand the problem correctly, this nearly new pair of work pants lost the seam under the zipper.  The pants could be returned, but it's so much less work to have Mom mend them.


Even though you are grown and no longer live with me, I still have a thing or two to teach you -- like how to mend pants.

I know that you have a sewing machine because I gave it to you.  Watch and learn how to use the sewing machine that is sitting and doing nothing at your house.

I found some matching thread:


I threaded my sewing machine, put on the zig-zag foot, and restitched the missing seam:


I made sure to back-and-forth stitch each end of the seam so it wouldn't come out any time soon:


You know I've always said "If one is good, two are better," so I stitched the seam a second time right inside the first stitching line:


I changed my straight stitch to a zig-zag stitch:


And stitched over the edges of the seam, remembering to back-and-forth each end of the stitching:


The seam was repaired and the pants were serviceable, but there were a few missing stitches that I couldn't reach with my sewing machine:


I threaded a needle, made a knot, and pulled my needle through to the front of the pants keeping the knot on the inside of the pants:


Once the needle was through the seam at the beginning of the un-stitched area, I took a small stitch alternately from each side of the opening.  One stitch through the top seam:


One stitch through the bottom seam:


Once that seam was stitched closed, I put my needle through the seam so I could make a knot on the inside of the pants:


When the needle was inside the pants, I began to wrap it with the thread:


After wrapping two or three times:


I pulled the needle through the threads to make a knot.  I cut the thread and the pants were fixed:


And that, sweet child o' mine, is how you will mend your pants from this moment onward,

Love,
Mom
(aka "The Pants Whisperer")

4 comments:

Shari - a prim and (not so) proper quilter said...

FANTASTIC! But I bet yours will keep bringing them home for Mom to mend...

Lisa said...

So funny! I have a firm "I do mending once a year whether I need to or not" policy - which just incidentally happened this week because I couldn't close the mending drawer anymore. Most of the clothes still fit the original owner so it was a good mending year.

FLR said...

Oooohhh....so funny!!!
Even I - a stepmum with a sewing machine - hear this almost once a month ´you can do that so easily´, ´you can do that much faster´, ´it just takes 5 minutes to that´......hahaha!
Well, what would they do without us and our sewing machines!
groetjes
Francisca

Robin said...

Loved this post, thank you! More! More, more more please oh please for us mending-impaired.