7 Smart Sewing Hacks for Beginners: How to Fix Clothes With Style
If you’re like me and live a sustainable lifestyle, here are 7 sewing hacks for beginners to help you fix clothing you might otherwise discard.
These sustainable sewing hacks will teach you how to mend holes with embroidery thread and change up your pants. I’ll show you how to make the waist smaller on pants and even how to hem pants without cutting the hem off.
These little changes will make such a difference especially if you use colorful or contrasting threads. Let’s get started with 7 sewing hacks for beginners.
Tools and materials:
- Embroidery thread
- Needle
- Scissors
I’ll let you know what tools you need for each project.
1. Woven wheel stitch
- Pink and green embroidery thread
- Sewing needle
- Scissors
We're going to make a flower to cover this hole beautifully.
This stitch has 2 parts: the straight stitch spokes and the weaving around the spokes. Make the first stitch close to the hole.
Make the second stitch right near the hole.
Keeping the stitches equal length and distance to each other, make 3 more stitches to make a 5 pointed star.
Thread over, then under, then over, and then under.
Keep weaving around and around until you reach the ends of the spokes.
Once the rose is done, add green thread to make a leaf.
Start from the inside and pull the needle through the thread loop.
Repeat. So pretty!
2. Downsize jeans
- Jeans
- Measuring tape
- Marking pen
- Scissors
- Embroidery thread
- Sewing needle for denim
- Seam ripper
Measure how much you need to take in. Use the seam ripper to remove the center back loop at the top only.
Mark the measurement at the top of the waistband. Draw downward towards the bottom of the waistband in a triangular shape.
Cut this piece out with a flat edge at the bottom.
Start at the bottom and stitch going across all the way up to the top of the waistband.
Tightly pull in the threads.
Sew the back loop back into place. A perfect fit!
3. Ladder stitch
- Embroidery thread
- Sewing needle
If you have a hole along the seam, use a ladder stitch to secure.
Start sewing from the inside and sew into the seam allowance. Sew across from the beginning of the hole to the end of the hole. Pull tightly on the threads from the inside.
Knot on the inside. Perfectly seamless!
4. Shorten jeans
- Jeans
- Measuring tape
- Heavy duty sewing needle
- Heavy duty thread
Here’s how to shorten jeans, keeping the original hem.
Fold up the jeans to your desired length.
Stitch just underneath the original hem. Stitch all the way across.
Fold the original hem down. So easy and looks so good.
5. Fishbone stitch
- Colored embroidery thread
- Sewing needle
- Scissors
- Pen or washable marker
If you’ve got another hole and want to do a different stitch, try this technique.
Draw a straight line about an inch on top of and below the hole. Draw an oval to connect the two points.
Stitch about a quarter of the way down along the sides at the top. Repeat so there are two stitches on either side at the top.
Then alternate the stitches, weaving them back and forth, staying in between the lines.
Continue until you reach the bottom of the oval. Knot on the inside.
Make a stem by stitching below. Another pretty way to cover a hole.
6. Rose button
- Pink and green embroidery thread
- Sewing needle
- Scissors
Here’s a beautiful way to add a special flourish to your buttons.
Start with green thread and go across.
Stitch across adjacently. Then stitch once diagonally to make three leaves.
Use a colored thread at the top buttonhole. Insert from the inside out. As you pull the thread through, twist the thread around the needle several times.
Insert the needle back through the hole to make a knot, or a rose.
Pull tightly to make the flower. So beautiful!
7. Blanket stitch
- Patch
- Embroidery thread
- Sewing needle
- Scissors
A blanket stitch looks like a line of reversed Ls. This type of stitch is very versatile and looks so pretty when patching.
Lay the patch over the hole in your jeans.
Insert your needle through the fabric from the inside out. Then take the needle down through the fabric at the top of the first stitch. Make sure your stitches are all the same length.
Bring the needle in a small vertical line down from where you put it. Insert the needle through the pulled thread. Repeat.
Continue stitching until you reach the end of your patch. Push the needle and thread into the inside and tie it in a knot.
Sewing hacks for beginners
I hope I showed you how pretty hand-sewn clothing can be. Please let me know if my sewing hacks for beginners helped or inspired you. Tag me in your photos @kaaras.style.
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