Holed clothes are back in fashion, but there’s no need to go and buy new clothes!
You can easily modify your current wardrobe for as much as it costs to buy a needle and thread, if you don’t have them already at your disposal.
If you feel intimidated – don’t. It’s easy to learn how to sew a window in a shirt or get that ripped-jean look that doesn’t fray – without having to buy new.
Intro to Basic Sewing
If you don’t already know how to sew, this kind of project requires only basic knowledge in how to wield a needle, some thread, and a thimble.
For your project, find a similar colored thread to the article of clothing you’re altering and select a length of thread double to that of your project – plus about a fourth.
Put the thread through the eye of the needle, and tie the ends together by holding the ends parallel to each other, loop them, and pull both ends through the loop.
For stitches, keep them fairly uniform in length and direction – the smaller the better.
When finished, cut the threads about two inches (or enough for you handle to tie a knot) from the base of the last stitch on the inside of the project, so it won’t show. Then, tie those into a simple knot as close to the fabric as you can.
How to Sew a Hole in a Shirt
Open shoulders or a window in a high collar shirt are super trendy right now, and fairly easy to reproduce on your own.
Mark the selected area you wish to remove with a pen or fabric pen, and cut along the line. To avoid any rise or scrunching, make the occasional snip along the area you plan to fold in to avoid pull. Now, fold the edges of the fabric in and sew it down.
If you have trouble making similar shapes with the pen on both sides for an open-shoulders look, take a piece of paper or cardboard and cut out a shape. You can use this as a stencil for marking the cut areas.
For windows on high collar shirts that you wish to look like a sharp triangle, cut just below the collar, not on it. Then, cut diagonally down on each end of the first for whatever length you desire.
At the corners of the triangle by the collar, cut just a little more along the path of the first cut. For the corner that points down, cut down by the same amount.
Now you’ll have little flaps to turn in and sew down. Sew as close to the edge and around the corners of the window as you can to avoid fraying strands.
How To Sew Holes in Jeans
Knowing how to sew a hole in jeans is handy, as distressed and torn jeans continue to leave and reenter the fashion scene.
Denim jeans are one of the few, if only, instances where a fray at the edges of a rip or tear not only doesn’t look trashy, but is in fashion so much that people pay extra for distressed jeans.
To make your own distressed jeans, select the area or areas you wish to effect and perhaps mark them with a wash-out fabric pen.
If you want distressed jeans, not hole-y jeans, turn the pants inside out and mark that area. Then, taking a knife or pair of scissors, use them to scrape along the jeans horizontally (not with the tip!).
Turn them out and check to see if the level of distress is what you’d like. If not, continue to same motion on the inside or outside of the jeans.
For other looks in distressed jeans, take a tiered shaving razor and drag it across the jeans in a horizontal fashion.
Sandpaper is another way to distress your jeans, but not many people have it laying around for easy access. It’s also a little harder to control if you want a loose-thread distressed look as opposed to just a bit of distress on the top layer.
For holed jeans, we recommend using loose pants, not skinny jeans.
When you remove the desired fabric, don’t cut along the seams otherwise you’ll disturb the structural integrity of your jeans. This may develop rips along the seams.
To add distress to the newly cut out area, use a knife or pair of scissors and scrape along the edges horizontally. For loose threads, take a pair of tweezers and pull out the extra fabric.
Tips on How to Sew a Hole
When cutting out portions of fabric, cut as straight as you can to avoid confusion of how much to fold in or where to sew.
If you don’t have fabric scissors at home, sharpen whatever scissors you do have.
Don’t pull the fabric all the way into the crosshairs of the scissors as you’ll lose leverage in the cut. Use only the first half or less of the scissors.
Here’s a video showing how to style your new distressed jeans!
Do you have any tips on how to sew a hole?