Having holes in your clothes doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye! Accidental tears and pesky moths can create holes in your jumpers, socks and tees.

Fix them as soon as you see them, it takes 5 minutes and the old adage is true… a stitch in time saves nine.

Here’s how to do it:

• Choose your largest needle
• Find thread in the best colour match you have, to help disguise the repair
• Spread the hole over a darning mushroom or any rounded object in your home (light bulb, orange, bowl)
• Starting your stitches further out than the hole, make a series of stitches across the width of the hole. Do not pull the thread taught, follow the space left in the gap
• Weave the needle over and under the threads you’ve created, in a perpendicular direction to close the gap

Tallis is famous for knitwear and we believe in making quality knitted clothing which last a lifetime. We’re also on hand to help you if you’ve damaged something.

This photograph shows our repair on a Tallis cashmere jumper which one of our customers shrunk on the washing line. We are very happy that with our help, he was able to fix it and keep on wearing it.

See the video below for a great description on how to fix a shrunken jumper. If your jumper is completely unwearable, Tallis offers a service to recycle it into a beanie hat.

And if it’s a Tallis jumper, this service is completely FREE!

Please visit Forever Tallis to make your jumper into a hat.

Jeans are usually made from 100% cotton in a highly intensive process – from the cultivation of that famously thirsty and pest-prone crop, to the intensive manufacturing and dying process of the durable fabric we call denim. Since it takes about 8,000 litres of water to make them, give your jeans (and the environment) the respect they deserve. Aim to keep them for life. Fix or repurpose them when they’re worn out instead of buying new.

Option 1: Sewing (courtesy of the Sunday Times)

• When threading your needle, you need a single thread. (Do not pull through the eye of the needle completely to give a double thread — we want this to be as subtle as possible.) Knot the single thread end.
• Fold up your hem where it sits naturally — there should already be a crease. Use pins and/or iron it to ensure it stays even.
• Turn the garment inside out. Start at a side seam (inner on trousers) to keep the knot hidden — the aim is to make the stitching invisible from the outside.
• Use a blind stitch. Ensure you only pick up 2-3 threads of the fabric and don’t pull too tight (this will prevent puckering and keep it invisible). Repeat until the entire hem is secure, then knot the thread to finish.

Option 2: Using hemming tape and an iron

At Tallis, we love fish leather elbow patches! You can buy these on our online shop by clicking here.

It isn’t always possible to fix a zip, you may need to take it to your local seamstress to replace the zip entirely. Here are some fixes for the most common repairs, courtesy of the Sunday Times.

1. Often zips get stuck. Once you have cleared any fabric from its path (do this carefully to avoid making a hole), take a graphite pencil and rub the tip along the zip’s teeth that are closest to the zip puller — this should do the trick to help the zip slide past. If it isn’t closing properly when being zipped up, the pencil trick should work too.

2. *Warning* Invisible zips are the most difficult to fix, but these step-by-step instructions should help. If you succeed in doing this, you should have no problems with visible zips. Are you up for the challenge?

a) When one side of the zip has popped off and out of the slider, the best place to start is the bottom.You will need to access it, so you may need to unpick the seam on your dress/skirt etc a bit. Don’t worry, you can fix that later. The bottom of the zip is often left exposed, so you shouldn’t have to unpick too much.

b) If there is a bottom stop, you must snip it off (carefully please!), as we need both sides of the zip separated. Pull apart to separate.

c) Remove the slider from the side it is still attached to via the bottom of the zip.

d) Feed the slider back on to the zip by pushing the zip tape down and wiggling through the top of the head. Stop the slider when it gets to the teeth. Do the same with the other side of tape, ensuring they are both the right way round and are even. NB: wiggle carefully, as the teeth are very sensitive and if one of them is slightly bent the wrong way, you will need to snip it off to make it smooth.

e) This is where it gets tricky. You want to slide the slider up at the same time as pulling apart the zip tape below the slider, so it forces the slider back on to the teeth and the teeth to lock into place. Use your thumb and forefinger to hold the end of zip tape in place and pull the slider up with your other hand. This can take a few goes; just don’t force it with too much pressure.

f) Once the slider is back on, you want to check it is working from top to bottom.

g) Because we removed the bottom stop, we now need to put something in its place to ensure the slider doesn’t come off the end. If you don’t have a soldering iron at home (odd!), then take a needle and thread and stitch across from one side of the tape to the other. Finally, carefully sew up any bits of seam you had to unpick to remove the slider.

If you don’t have the right colour when darning an item or clothing, you can do visible repairs and make them into a feature. For inspiration check out @celiapym on Instagram and follow the hashtag #visiblemending

It’s easy to sew buttons on. Do it before you lose it! Collect any spare buttons in a box so you’re always ready it you lose one.

• Start by removing any loose threads left on the garment; if you’re using scissors, be careful not to snip the fabric.
• Tip: a trick to speed up sewing buttons and to ensure a stronger hold, is to thread your needle so you are sewing with four threads each time you pull through. Take a single length of thread and fold it in half, then thread the needle with both halves at the same time and knot.
• Place the button where you wish to attach, and hold with one hand. Start from the back of the garment and, with your other hand, push the needle up and through one of the holes. Go back down through another and repeat 2-3 times.
• To finish off the stitch so it doesn’t unravel, go down through one hole again, but not through the fabric. With your needle and thread between the button and garment, wrap the thread around the stitches a couple of times before pushing through the fabric and knotting.