If You Want to Destroy My Sweater…

If you recognized that as a Weezer song good for you! It’s one of my favorites. Maybe because of the subject matter but most of all because it’s fun to sing.

Why am I repairing this sweater when I have too many already? Well because it’s one of my favorites. I love a good hoodie sweater and I don’t find super comfortable ones that don’t pill very often.

Like the song says, “If you want to destroy my sweater, pull this thread as I walk away.” Sweaters really can come apart that fast if you don’t catch the holes when they are small. I did end up wearing this sweater a few times before I repaired it today, but I knew if I let it grow past this point the repair would be super noticeable.

I don’t think it’s very obvious at this point, and I used brown thread cause that is what I had on hand in my travel kit. Can you spot the repair?

Anyway it was great timing I decided to do this today. It’s chilly tonight at my son’s football practice. Where I might have been freezing in my one sweatshirt, I am now just chilly in my sweater layers.

I’ll be cranking the heat when I leave, and pulling out my jacket when I get home. I wonder if it’s still to early to put away summer clothes. Pennsylvania weather is a fickle creature!

If you are wondering whether it takes special skills to fix a sweater, it really doesn’t if the hole is still small. It’s nice to have some knitting knowledge if you are trying to patch the hole with yarn but when the holes are small you can just sew the hole back together. The way a sweater is constructed means it’s stretchy, so you won’t notice if you lose a little bit of length in one spot or another.

I did take a few of the looser stitches (loops) I picked up and twisted them around with my sewing needle as I stitched the sides together. This was to secure the area more and so my sweater sides met more evenly instead of having larger gaps along my stitch line. It’s not necessary but it does make everything look cleaner and it hides the repair better.

If you have a favorite sweater with holes to large to fix in this way and no knowledgeable knitter to patch it, you can always find similar color fabric patches to sew on so you can extend the life of your clothes (and get them out of the back of your closet).

I actually like the look of contrasting fabric patches too. I think it’s fun to take a bright colored fabric and make the patch a stylish feature. It depends on where the hole is though. On places a sweater wears naturally like elbows or pockets it seems stylish. Mine split neat the hood seam and it didn’t seem like a fashionable place to put a bright patch!

I hope this post finds you well and that you have the motivation to repair some damaged favorites. I am gonna run now because I think practice is almost over and my thumbs are telling me to put my hands in my pockets. I’d spell check this but too cold right now!

Yes I did sing that song in my head the entire time I patched the sweater, and while writing this post.