How to sew a hole in fabric: basic repair techniques

A small hole is the cheapest hole you will ever fix. UT Extension's clothing repair lesson warns that a worn spot or small tear keeps growing the longer it is ignored. Whether a mend lasts also depends on proportion: the repair should be no heavier than the damage. A thick patch on a thin shirt stiffens it. Once you know how to sew a backstitch and a whipstitch, choosing the lightest repair that will hold matters as much as neat stitching.

The repair depends on what failed: the stitching or the cloth. When only the stitching broke, new stitches along the old seamline restore it; a patch is overkill for a seam that needs only new stitches. When the cloth itself tore, wore through or went missing, it needs reinforcement.

Match the repair to the damage

Once the cloth is damaged, fabric type and hole size decide the method. Woven fabric frays along its threads, so a tear needs a backing that holds the cut threads in place. A knit is made of interlocking loops that unravel, so a hole in a sweater or sock needs new yarn woven across it. Missing fabric needs a patch.

Set up a small mending kit

Every repair here takes hand needles, thread that matches the garment, small scissors and pins. Tears also need fusible interfacing and an iron, knits need a darning mushroom and yarn, and patches need fabric scraps. Walmart, Michaels, Hobby Lobby and Amazon carry all of it.

• Sharps needles in sizes 7 to 10, and a blunt tapestry needle for yarn.
• Thread in the same fiber as the fabric, as the University of Tennessee Extension's clothing repair lesson advises, in five basic colors: white or beige, navy, brown, black and medium gray.
• Thread snips, a seam ripper, pins, an iron and a press cloth (a plain cotton square).
• Lightweight fusible interfacing, a darning mushroom or egg, yarn as heavy as your knits or slightly finer, and fabric scraps.

Close a split seam with a backstitch or ladder stitch

Choose the stitch by which side of the seam you can reach. If you can turn the garment inside out, close the seam from the inside with a backstitch, one of the strongest hand stitches. If the seam is lined, stuffed or otherwise closed off, use a ladder stitch from the outside, which hides between the folds.

For every repair, hold the damage running left to right in front of you and sew from right to left (left-handed, reverse each direction). Use a single strand, 18 inches (46 cm) long, knotted at one end.

From the inside: backstitch

1. Turn the garment wrong side out, pull out broken threads with a seam ripper and pin the layers together along the old stitching line.
2. Bring the needle up on the old stitching line, 1/2 inch (13 mm) to the right of the break, where the seam still holds.
3. Insert the needle 1/8 inch (3 mm) to the right of where the thread comes out, then bring it up 1/8 inch to the left of where the thread first came out.
4. Insert the needle at the left end of the stitch you just made and bring it up 1/8 inch to the left of where the thread comes out. The stitches meet end to end.
5. Repeat step 4 until you are 1/2 inch past the left end of the break, then knot against the seam allowance and press.

UT Extension recommends stitches 1/16 to 1/8 inch (2 to 3 mm) long. On a knit, leave each stitch slightly relaxed so the seam can stretch.

From the outside: ladder stitch

Use the ladder stitch, also called a slip stitch, on lined jackets and stuffed toys. Sew4Home's tutorial on closing a seam by hand uses the same back-and-forth slide.

1. Fold both edges of the opening inward along the original seamline so the folds meet. Press and pin.
2. At the right end, slip the needle into the far fold from the inside and bring it out on the crease, so the knot stays hidden.
3. Cross straight over the gap to the near fold. Insert the needle into the crease, slide it 1/8 inch to the left inside the fold and bring it out.
4. Cross straight back to the far fold and make the same 1/8-inch slide to the left.
5. Keep alternating. After four or five stitches, pull the thread gently: the folds close and the crossings disappear.
6. Sew two stitches past the left end. Knot against the fabric, run the needle 1 inch (2.5 cm) through the seam, pull the knot inside and clip.

Mend a small tear with fusible backing and a whipstitch

A small tear in woven fabric, such as a straight rip or an L-shaped snag, needs support behind the broken threads. Lightweight fusible interfacing pressed onto the wrong side holds the edges in place. Where the fabric bends or takes strain, such as an elbow or a pocket corner, a row of whipstitches over the tear adds strength.

1. Trim the frayed threads without cutting into the fabric. Cut interfacing 1/2 inch larger than the tear on every side and round its corners.
2. On the wrong side, push the torn edges together without overlapping and lay the interfacing over them, rough glue side down.
3. Cover with a damp, not wet, press cloth. Press the iron straight down for 10 to 15 seconds, then lift it and move on without sliding, as Sewdirect's guide to fusing interfacing describes. Use the heat setting on the package.
4. Let it cool completely and re-press any edge that lifts.
5. Turn the garment right side out and bring the needle up 1/8 inch below the right end of the tear.
6. Insert the needle 1/8 inch above the tear, directly opposite, and bring it up 1/8 inch below the tear and 1/8 inch to the left. Repeat to the left end and tie off on the wrong side.

UT Extension notes that a fused tear "will barely be noticeable on most fabrics," so on a lining you can stop at step 4. On an L-shaped tear, whipstitch one leg, then turn the work for the other.

Darn a worn hole in a sweater or sock

Darning rebuilds missing fabric by weaving new yarn across a hole: first parallel threads, called the warp, then crosswise threads woven over and under them, called the weft. It suits knits and worn spots that have not opened yet, because the woven patch stays soft where a whipstitched hole would pucker.

1. Slide the darning mushroom or egg inside the garment under the hole and gather the fabric around the handle with a rubber band. The knit should lie flat, not stretched.
2. Thread the tapestry needle with 18 inches of yarn, unknotted. With small running stitches, outline a rectangle about 1/2 inch outside the thin area, leaving a 2-inch (5 cm) tail.
3. Lay the warp: at the top right corner, take a tiny stitch, carry the yarn straight down across the hole and take a tiny stitch at the bottom edge. Move about one yarn width to the left and carry the yarn back up. Repeat across, leaving the lines slightly slack.
4. Weave the weft: from the top right, weave the needle to the left, over one vertical line and under the next, and take a tiny stitch into the fabric at the left edge.
5. Move down a yarn's width and weave back to the right, going under the lines you went over in the last row and over the ones you went under.
6. Repeat to the bottom edge, pushing the rows together with the needle tip, then weave both tails into the back for about 1 inch and clip.

Sew on a patch for a larger hole

A patch is the right repair when fabric is missing or the edges of a hole are too thin to hold stitches. UT Extension advises cutting any patch at least 1 inch larger than the damaged area and trimming the damage to a square or rectangle first.

1. Trim the hole to a neat square or rectangle. Cut the patch 1 1/4 inches (3 cm) larger on every side, with its threads running the same way as the garment's.
2. Fold 1/4 inch (6 mm) under on all four edges of the patch and press.
3. Pin the patch over the hole on the right side and whipstitch around the fold, 1/8 inch apart, catching the garment with each stitch.
4. On the wrong side, whipstitch the raw edges of the hole to the back of the patch so they stop fraying.

For a less visible repair, put the patch behind the hole, clip the hole's corners 1/4 inch diagonally, turn its edges under and slip stitch the fold to the patch. UT Extension notes that fused patches add stiffness and that stitched edges last longer.

Why a mend puckers or reopens

Puckering comes from tension: thread pulled tight gathers the fabric into a ridge, so stop pulling once each stitch lies flat. A mend that reopens was usually stitched into frayed threads, so keep every stitch at least 1/8 inch into sound fabric. UT Extension also notes that all-cotton thread wears out on long-wearing polyester.

Frequently asked questions

Should you wash a garment before mending it?

Yes. UT Extension recommends cleaning a garment before patching it. Body oils and dirt keep fusible interfacing from bonding, and a clean garment shows the full extent of the damage. Wash patch fabric too, so it shrinks before you sew it on.

How do you stop a hole in a sweater from getting bigger?

Secure the loose loops right away. Run a safety pin or a length of thread through the open loops around the hole so they cannot unravel, and skip washing the sweater until it is darned. If the hole appeared in storage, check nearby wool for moth damage.

How do you fix a hole in the thigh of jeans?

Inner-thigh holes sit in a wide worn area, so a small patch fails at its edges. Put a denim patch inside, large enough to cover all the thin fabric, then sew close rows of stitches back and forth through both layers, by hand or by machine.

What color thread should you use if you cannot find a match?

Go one shade darker than the fabric, since stitched thread tends to read lighter. On prints and heathered fabrics, match the dominant color, or use medium gray, which blends with more colors than black or white. On a visible mend, a contrasting color is fine.

When is a repair worth taking to a tailor?

Take lined suits and coats, silk and fine wool to an alterations shop when a visible mend would spoil them. Some shops offer reweaving, which rebuilds the weave with threads from a hidden seam. It is slow work, so ask for a quote first.

Start with the easiest repair in your closet, usually a split seam: it takes a needle, thread and a few minutes. Next, practice the fusible backing and whipstitch on a cotton scrap, then mend a torn shirt. Learn darning on a sock with a small hole, since socks are forgiving while you get the weave even. Keep needles, thread, fusible interfacing and a few denim and cotton scraps in one box, so the next tear gets fixed the week it happens.