Fixing a split seam is one of the easiest mending jobs out there!
A split seam is when the stitching along a seam has somehow come undone without tearing the fabric. The repair is simply restitching the part that has come undone right along the line where the old stitching was. You must start where the stitching is still good, sew over the part where the seam has come undone, and then continue a little way into the good stitching on the far side. This will secure your repair and hopefully prevent the stitches that remain from coming undone as well.
1. Pin your fabric together.
2. Start above your pins, sew the seam along the old seam line (or using the same seam allowance as the good stitching) and then continue until you reach the intact stitching on the far side of the repair. This can be done either with a sewing machine or by hand with a simple backstitch.
3. Check your seam.
4. Done!
I followed the same process to fix a seam on my son’s sweatpants where the pocket attached into the leg.
1. Pin the seam. In this case I also pinned the fabric back from the seam so that the pocket itself wouldn’t somehow get caught in my stitching–I didn’t want to sew it closed by accident.
2. Sew, again starting and ending in the intact stitching to either side of the repair.
3. Check your sewing.
4. Turn right side out and ensure the seam is complete!
More posts on mending here at Frugal Upstate:
Mending: Replace a Missing Hook and Eye
Mending: Replacing / Reattaching a Button
Mending: Replacing a Button with a Shank
Functional Patch for Ripped Jeans
Build a Basic Sewing/Mending Supply Kit
Quick Tip: Make a Quick Mending Kit
Your hints and tips are great, but it saddens me that we need to have them. I am not that old (50) but I and I suspect most of my post war generation come from a background where mending was the norm. Heck my mother even turned my outgrown shoes into summer play sandals but cutting out the toes! How did we get to a situation where we need to educate adults how to sew on a button?
So true Gillie–there has been a lot of knowledge lost. I hope that through my posts on simple repairs I might help some folks who have never even considered mending to try it! And of course I’ll get more complicated along the way.