Suit fabric repair

[novalis]

A single strand or fiber of wool has somehow gotten loose on the front of one of my suits. It's a loop about 1 inch long still attached to the suit fabric at both ends of the loop.

Should I just cut the loose strand or will that somehow make things worse?

I'll see if I can post a picture.

 

[johnnynorman3]

I'd find an excuse to take it to a tailor -- why not wear it next time you need a pair of pants hemmed. Ask what he can do -- he'll likely fix it for free if you give him some stuff to tailor.

I've heard that you can take a needle and pull the thread back through the underside (that made no sense -- but you get the point, right?). I've tried this on my own once (with a shirt, not a suit) and couldn't succeed. But I bet a good tailor could.

All I now is DON'T cut the thread unless that is a last resort. Seems to me that's when a complete unraveling will start to begin.

 

[bengal-stripe]

Do not cut the thread loop.

Take a piece of sewing cotton and form a loop around the fabric loop (like a chain). Take both end of the cotton and put them to the eye of a needle. Now you have a needle with two ends of the cotton on one side, forming a loop on the other side, which will form another loop with the pulled thread. Plunge the needle into the centre of the pulled thread and come out on the other side (through the lining if need be). Pull out needle and cotton; the thread loop will be on the underside of the fabric. Pull the outer fabric gently in all directions to ease the pull.

 

[armscye]

I'll give you another old seamstress' technique I've used with success. Use a large sailmaker's type needle, and a two foot long piece of a relatively coarse, fuzzy thread. Push the point of the needle into the exact point at which your loop emerges from the cloth, all the way through the fabric and linings. As you draw the coarse thread through, it will "grab" the loop and pull it back into the fabric. If it doesn't work the first time, you probably have not placed the point at precisely the location of the pull. Repeat.

I once used this technique on a silk/wool Corneliani sportcoat that had a huge loop of silk disfiguring its lapel, and had consequently been marked down to under $50. The technique worked perfectly, and I still have that jacket.

 

[novalis]

Gentlemen, many thanks for the helpful advice.

 

[novalis]

Plunge the needle into the centre of the pulled thread and come out on the other side (through the lining if need be).

Actually I have a question now that I'm rereading the post. Does the "centre of the thread" mean placing the needle precisely where one end of the loop emerges (as armscye describes)? Or by centre do you mean the center point on the fabric where the two ends of the loop emerges? Or do you simply mean the center of the pulled thread and plunging the needle through a somewhat arbitrary point in the fabric?

 

[armscye]

My reading of the originating post is that a thread emerges from the fabric and returns to that precise point-- a classic fabric "pull."

The technique I've described places the needle's point at exactly the location where the thread loop emerges/returns. In essence, the coarse thread grabs the loop and pulls it back through to the invisible side of the fabric.

 

[novalis]

Voila, I used a combination of both armscye and bengal-stripe's advice to pull the offending thread through the underside of the fabric and pulled the fabric to ease the thread back into its proper place.

Thanks again.

 

[bengal-stripe]

Well done.

 

[ernest]

Good to know. Thanks for the tip.

On one of my cashmere knitted jumper I had once at least 8 loops out on the front.

I managed to put them back in the right place by spreading the stitches in knitting (the holes had decreased because of the loop) all around the loop.

The tip is to put the fabrics on lampshade to see the stitches.

 

[clarkyin]

Worked! Thanks! while using the needle i completely freaked out! lol