Discreet darning of torn seams and fabrics

Sometimes accidents happen, and we get nasty rips and tears, often near a seam or edge. It can be hard to know how to fix these.

Thanks to the hook on one of my favorite summer dresses getting caught in the threads of some raw-edged linen fabric I was washing at the same time (because I forgot the dress had a hook at all...) I will now show you a suggestion on how you can proceed to make the garment almost as good as new, but with traces of a little extra love and care.

The first thing I did was unpick all the seams in the area, so I could iron the fabric flat wherever there was any damage. I also unpicked a bit of the zipper, took off the hook, unpicked the hem, and so on. It pays to have a seam ripper that is comfortable to hold and sharp! (If you have a tiny one where the metal almost bends when you try to cut a thread, it's time to invest in a slightly better one, otherwise, repair and re-sewing will become incredibly unpleasant projects!)

I chose a fabric to place on the inside of the damaged area that matched the colors in the pattern and had a similar thickness and firmness. I happened to have a silk fabric scrap from my student days, so now it finally got used, along with some old silk thread I inherited... You can also use sewing thread or embroidery floss that you split to make it thinner.

The easiest thing might have been to attach the fabric with a little spray adhesive or fusible web before I sewed. If you haven't done much hand sewing, it can help keep everything smooth and straight. Note that extra glue can make it a bit harder to sew through the fabric than without. So there are pros and cons to both. If you use fusible fabric like Vliesofix, or any other form of glue, or sew through somewhat thick fabrics, it might be a good idea to use a thimble. Pins are, of course, also very helpful, but can sometimes get in the way when hand sewing. 

Sew basting stitches back and forth over the entire damaged area. Each time you finish one direction, it's a good idea to stretch and pull the fabric a bit to make sure you don't sew too tightly, so everything stays smooth and nice. 

When sewing where there are holes, it can be beneficial to place the stitches so that the thread goes over the edge of the tear. This way, the edge of the hole is held in place and securely attached to the fabric underneath.  Do not sew more than 1 mm outside the edge of the original fabric, because afterwards we will cut around the edge!

When you're done sewing back and forth in one direction, turn everything 90 degrees and sew back and forth the other way, at least over the areas with holes/damage. 

You can also sew all of this on a sewing machine if you want it to go a little faster. For some clothes, machine stitching might look more appropriate than hand stitching! (I sewed this while we watched "Wizards, Tales of Arcadia" on Netflix with the kids one Saturday morning)

I chose to use a John James Cotton Darner needle for this project. Darning needles are longer than ordinary sewing needles, so you can thread the fabric onto the needle, or perform the "weaving" when darning holes, over much longer stretches at a time. This can save a lot of time, and it's also a bit easier to get straighter seams.

Once the reinforcing fabric is securely sewn, you can cut along the edge, leaving only the shape you would have had on the original fabric before it got damaged. 

Now you can copy the original seams and reassemble the garment as it was originally. You can do this on a sewing machine or by hand with backstitch, for example. What you need to do will vary slightly from garment to garment and where the damage is located. Below are pictures of the process I followed for this particular garment. 

Pressed the edge with an iron, same width as before and as around the rest of the sleeve

Sewed down the edge

Sewed the sleeve into the armhole where it had been unpicked, and overlocked the edge with a mock overlock stitch. An overlock seam or zigzag stitch also works, of course :) 

Sewed the zipper in place with a zipper foot, and checked that it could actually close. The zipper tape was sewn into the seam allowance, so I did that too.

Then I folded in the seam allowance/edge and sewed it down with a few stitches back and forth right on the fold under the arm, about 1 cm from the zipper/fold edge.

Then all that remained was to reattach the hook. I usually attach the hook to the eye on the other side to find the correct placement. It's easy to attach it a little too far out, so attaching them together helps with estimation. I sew down the two eyes, and then I sew a few stitches over the neck as well, exactly where it bends, so that the hook lies flat on the fabric. 

Here's the finished repair on the inside! Trying to fix this without unpicking would probably have taken at least as long, been more confusing and frustrating, and resulted in a messier outcome. Remembering that all garments are made up of flat seams and pattern pieces makes it much easier to come up with solutions. If it's too difficult to fix in 3D, just do what's needed to fix it flat first :) 

I am very happy with this repair! It turned out more discreet than I had thought, which I was almost disappointed by! With a darker fabric and different thread color, it would have been virtually invisible to those who wanted it to be. 
I love that I had silk fabric and silk thread; it feels like the repair gives a little hint of sunshine luxury under the arm. 

The dress went on a trip to Hovedøya relatively shortly after it finished drying from that fateful wash cycle.

The unpicking and hand sewing I did while watching a series with the kids, and the machine sewing took much less time than documenting it with pictures. Finding a new dress I liked just as much for similar use would have taken more time than fixing this one, and definitely cost more money! So I have saved time, money, and the environment, and kept the dress I love, with a little trace of extra love under the arm <3

Please ask if there's anything I can help you with! 
Good luck with your next repair!