Clothing repairs

Decla

My partner wears a uniform at work over his clothes and this results in a hole developing in the same place on all his t-shirts. I try to get him to stick to holey tops for work but he doesn't remember. Can I sew up t-shirts without them looking too scruffy? What about the ones that have very large holes? What can I do with them? He seems to wear out trousers very quickly too and I'm sure they could be patched but I don't know how to do this.

Could you OSers please advise me on how I can stop this cycle of buying clothes for OH so often and on tips for me to learn how to repair clothes. I've really only sewed on buttons before and then not always successfully.:o

Badger_Lady

Patches!

Would that work? Give the T-shirt a designer look-y

mjburton

Check out your local evening classes. You might be able to find a dressmaking class. One term will give you enough to repair clothes and to make simple things. An invaluable skill so worth the initial cost.

Have you tried rearranging OHs wardobe/ drawers so that he has one section for work clothes and another for normal wear? Or hide his clothes and issue him with the appropriate attire for the nexy day?!!!

pigpen

Get him to wear them inside out the second time?

I'd go with patching them.. a zigzag stitch with a machine around the edge of a patch to secure it.. maybe something harder wearing like a patch of demin would work better? Make sure the fabric you patch with is already washed and preshrunk.. otherwise it will pull the shirt it is stitched to when it is washed.

It might be sensible to add patches to new work clothes in the places they always wear to prevent the wear in the first place.. patches can be cut from the old worn out clothing so cutting down costs!

squeaky

There are all sorts of designer/logo/fun patch badges you can find on-line and in some haberdashery departments that you could put over holes in things...

..and an alternative to a straightforward "patch" would be to sew on a fake pocket if the holes are in a reasonable place where you might find one.

And if your sewing skills are a bit patchy there are lots of iron on badges and patches to be had too.