7 Techniques for Sewing Clothes That Will Last Longer
The best way to create clothing that lasts longer is by practicing and improving your sewing skills. But that’s rather useless advice, isn’t it? I will always recommend learning new skills and adding new techniques to your repertoire to improve your sewing, but I’ve made this list to help you with those basic skills you need to make your homemade clothes last longer.
In general, the quickest way to start making clothing that lasts longer is by paying attention to your seams. These are the weak points of garments so if they’re not finished and reinforced they’ll start to fray away and rip apart.
There is always a learning period that everyone goes through before they’re able to make truly high-quality clothing at home, but with a little practice, you’ll make it past the beginner stage in no time. Use these tips to help you improve your sewing and make your handmade clothes last a long time.
In addition to the sewing techniques that I’ll go over in this article, you’ll want to learn how to find high-quality fabric that won’t rip, pill, or stretch out easily.
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1. Finish your seams
You know how fabric frays (except knit fabric, of course). If you don’t take the time to, essentially, cover the raw edges of the fabric so they will not continue to fray into nothing while you wear and wash your clothing.
Many sewists eventually graduate to finishing their seams on a serger (or overlock machine), but if you don’t have one of those, you can easily finish your seams with an overlock presser foot on your sewing machine and a zigzag or overcast stitch. This allows you to get your thread right up to the edge to finish the seam and prevent fraying. There are many other ways to finish seams as well, but this is a good starting point if you are a beginner sewist.
When I first started teaching myself how to sew, I had no clue what a seam finish was. I just ignored these steps when I saw them in pattern instructions, thinking they didn’t matter. Boy, was I wrong. The fabric all along those seams unraveled after just a few washes, and then the stitching along the seams started coming apart too.
The first few pieces of clothing I made became unwearable, because the fabric wouldn’t stay together. So lesson learned, always finish your seams!
2. Use stay tape with stretch fabric
A little trick that I was taught to use with all stretch fabrics is to stabilize shoulder seams to keep them from stretching out and slouching down over time. To do this, I add a little bit of knit stay tape along the stitch line of the shoulder seam before sewing the back and front bodice pieces together. Knit stay tape is basically just knit interfacing in a thin tape form. It allows the shoulder seam to retain some stretch while stabilizing it and keeping it from drooping over time.
You can use the same trick on any seam that is going to take a lot of pressure from the rest of the garment and be pulled down over time, it doesn’t just have to be the shoulder. For example, I’ll use stay tape on wide necklines that I don’t want to stretch out and along pocket openings.
3. Reinforce seams that get a lot of strain
Areas like armhole seams and crotch seams tend to take the brunt of the force from when your clothing strains around you when you bend over or pull your clothes on and off. This is why these are some of the most common areas where the thread will snap and the seam will pop open.
You can help prevent this catastrophe by taking an extra step to reinforce the seams in these areas of high strain. After you’ve sewn the seam, go back and stitch it again on the seam allowance just inside the original stitch line. This way if there is too much strain along the seam and the thread pops, there is still another line of stitches holding your garment together.
4. Make pattern adjustments so your clothing fits better
When you purchase a sewing pattern to use to make your clothes, you don’t have to stick to the exact lines and guides that the pattern lays out for you. It’s pretty rare for a standard size to fit anyone perfectly, so making your own clothes means you can adjust things so that they fit properly. You are so much more likely to continue wearing clothes long-term if they actually fit properly.
I know it can seem intimidating to make adjustments to a pattern that was created by a professional, but there are plenty of basic adjustments you can make that are not that difficult.
Take me as an example. I am an exceptionally short person. Clothes, even petite clothes, are always too long for me. I always need to shorten sleeves and pant legs, and I need to shorten the torso length of shirts and dresses to get my homemade clothes to fit right. This kind of adjustment makes a big difference, and it’s quite simple to do.
Most patterns nowadays have those double lines that say “lengthen and shorten.” Those give you ideal spots on the pattern you’re working with to make the adjustments you need for your body.
The other adjustment you can pretty easily make is blending two different sizes. Say your bust is a size 10, but your waist is a size 12. When you are tracing your paper pattern, you can combine these two sizes by drawing in your own line. You don’t have to stick to one pattern size if that’s not what works for your body.
5. Slow down!
Sewing is not a race. You want to give yourself the time to double-check everything and pay attention to details. This can help you catch mistakes before you make them and potentially save you from needing to scrap your entire project.
I’ve been that person who made a silly mistake and sewed the bodice onto the dress skirt backward. While I was able to remove the stitches and sew it on again the right way, the whole process ended up taking a lot more time if I would have just paid more attention to what I was doing, to begin with. And I’m sure unpicking and restitching that seam made the whole thing a little weaker in the long run.
It can also help to literally slow down your machine while you’re sewing. Some machines are a little finicky and the faster you go, the more likely it is for the top thread or bobbin to get a little mangled. This is more likely if you’re using a thick fabric or a knit fabric. The more you have to clip the thread and redo the seam, the weaker it’s going to be when you’re finished. Slowing down can help you keep the whole garment stronger.
6. Take care of your clothes
One of the best things you can do to improve the longevity of your handmade clothing is to take care of them after you make them. This means washing your clothes on a gentle cycle, trying not to use an over-hot iron, and storing your clothes in a way that makes sense for the fabric (hanging what you need to and carefully folding and putting away your other garments).
It’s also important to recognize that you don’t need to wash your clothes every time you wear them. Since washing is something that can wear clothes out quicker, recognizing that the pants you wore for a couple of hours yesterday are not dirty and don’t smell, generally means it’s safe to wear them a few more times before sticking them in the wash.
Of course, there are exceptions to this (especially undergarments), but use your best discretion and recognize that if it doesn’t smell, you can probably wear it again.
7. Mend and repair your clothes when they need it
Everything wears out at some point, but that doesn’t mean it’s automatically at the end of its life. Learning how to darn small holes and add creative patches to clothing can give it new life and many more years before it’s unwearable. Some people even learn how to embroider over holes to create flowers and other intricate designs.
Some clothes can last even longer. I like to turn old joggers and knit shirts into pajamas and loungewear. Other types of clothes can act as rags or be cut apart and turned into wash clothes, hand rags, wrapping paper, and more.
