this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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Sewing, Repairing and Reducing Waste

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A place to share ideas, knowledge and creations with textiles. The focus is on reducing waste, whether that be sewing from the scraps left from other projects, using the end of rolls and remnants, or repairing and remaking finished pieces.

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Stop hole in wool shirt from getting worse? Penny for scale. (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 7 months ago by hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works to c/sewingrepairing@sh.itjust.works
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This is a lightweight wool shirt, smartwool brand. I think it's 90 or 100 percent wool, I forgot to photograph the tag.

I use it as a base layer while camping, so looks aren't that important, but I don't want it to fall apart.

I got a couple of snags on my last trip, and I poked most of them back in without issue, these two were bigger and I tried stretching the fabric slightly to pull them in. I did it gently, but they both broke ๐Ÿซ 

Should I use a patch? Or sew a few loose stitches to hold things together? Or just leave it alone?

The underside of the shirt is bright orange, the hole is only the top layer, if that makes sense?

Thanks!

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[โ€“] Mandarbmax@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I'd toss a few stitches in there to pull it back together as you say, except I would probably try to use as many stitches as I could in the space to more evenly distribute the force around the hole. I'm not very experienced at mending stuff though so if someone else comes in and says something else trust them instead.

I love to see people fixing cool stuff though so good luck with an easy and effective repair, my friend!

[โ€“] Zachariah@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

darn

[โ€“] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago

I recently learned what that means from perusing this community haha

[โ€“] pageflight@piefed.social 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I think the suggestion to just stitch around it is probably sufficient, but an earlier post in this community pointed me to using a speedweve to basically weave a little patch in-place, picking up stitches around all the sides to sew it onto the mended garment. Looks pretty cool if you want to go to that much effort.

(Edit: Video with clearer instructions, also demos on non-hand-knit fabric.)

[โ€“] rbn@sopuli.xyz 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If you just want to strop the hole from expanding, I'd sew a circle around it and slightly pull it together. If the hole is too big and the pulling resulted in wrinkles, I'd do 4-8 diagonal connections on the inside of the cloth (so the hole looks like a cut pizza) and then sew a spiral until you reach the middle of the circle.

If you want to turn the hole into a little art project, you can also look up 'visible mending' on the search engine of your choice.

[โ€“] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago

Thanks for the recommendations!

[โ€“] janus2@lemmy.zip 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

There are ways to invisibly or barely-visibly repair knits, of varying degrees of difficulty (largely depending on yarn weight)

Repair What You Wear | How to mend holes in knitwear
barely-visibly repair hole by using needle and thread to carefully gather edges

Knitting Magic | Learn How to Perfectly Repair Holes in Knitted Sweater - Invisible Mending
invisibly repair single row of missing stitches by replacing them, using yarn and needle

NibleNeedles | How to mend knitting like a pro! invisibly repair multiple rows of missing stitches by replacing them; using yarn, needle, double ended knitting needles, and crotchet hook

[โ€“] janus2@lemmy.zip 0 points 7 months ago


Chelsea Quintela | Repair Hole in Seconds No Sew D.I.Y.
repair hole in fine gauge knit using heat bond interfacing (easiest but your holes may be too large for this)

[โ€“] janus2@lemmy.zip 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)


Sunny TV | How to Repair a Hole in a Fine Yarn Knit Sweater
invisibly repair multiple missing rows in a fine gauge knit using yarn, needle, and latch-hook

[โ€“] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago

Holy cow thanks for all this extremely specific instruction! I will look into it and report back!

[โ€“] Davel23@fedia.io 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Get some clear nail polish and dab a glob on the hole.

[โ€“] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago

Yeah if it came to that I would, but I'd like a not elegant repair first.

Looks aren't an issue, but I feel like I'd feel that lump of polish

[โ€“] mapu@slrpnk.net 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Did you ever get around to repairing this? I've been lurking this community and now I keep getting invested in months-old posts ๐Ÿ˜…

[โ€“] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago

I........ Did not. Lol

I definitely meant to, but got overwhelmed trying to decide the best way forward. The threads are so small, and woven into the lower layer of material. None of the guides show exactly what I've got.

Then I decided I was just gonna try to lock the ends down so they can't keep pulling, and call it good, even though it'll look ugly. Maybe sew a patch over it afterwards? Or darn it? Or sew a design into it? IDK.

I tucked it away to worry about later lol, probably when camping season starts again.

In the meantime, I did contact the manufacturer, smartwool, and they sent me a gift card for the value of the item, so that's nice.