Sometimes, if you catch a piece of knitwear on something like a piece of jewellery or a rough surface, it can unravel and cause a small hole.
A common repair we see in our repair programme is a piece of knitwear that has come undone when the linking thread, that joins pieces together, has unravelled and has created a hole in the seam. The knitted pieces are still fully intact and we just need to join the pieces back together
Equipment: Needle, scissors and two safety pins.
Instructions:
- On the inside of the garment, look for where the linking thread has unravelled at each end. The linking stitch is made up of small loops, so find where the knitted pieces have come apart, and catch the small loop with a safety pin to secure. The safety pin makes it easier to find later.
- For this repair you can use the tail of the linking thread that has unravelled, so start by threading the loose yarn through the eye of the needle and leave untied with a small tail.
- Thread the needle through the loop held with a safety pin and pull gently to secure it. This means the linking stitch is not going to unravel further.
- Hold the two knit edges in line with each other, and start by threading the needle from front to back, and back to front through the gaps in the stitch, this is called a running stitch. You want to make sure that your stitches are fairly small so there aren’t any big gaps in the seam on the outside of the garment.
- Continue the running stitch until you get closer to the original linking and thread the needle through the linking loops to secure it at this end. Hand sew a few centimetres past the original linking, through the linking loops, to ensure that it won’t unravel.
- Tie off the thread by wrapping the thread around the needle twice, pull the needle gently to secure and trim close to the knot
