How to fix a hole in a sweater without knitting

Hi, hello. It's sweater weather, which means every thrifted sweater in your house has decided to show you its holes at the same time. Full disclosure: I haven't filmed a sweater mending tutorial, so this post is the seam repair I do all the time plus the needle-and-thread video I send people to for actual holes. No knitting needles, no darning egg.

First, figure out what kind of hole you've got

Not every hole is the same hole, and the fix changes depending on which one you're looking at. Turn the sweater inside out, hold it up to a window, and look.

A seam split is the easy one. The knit itself is fine, the thread that held two pieces together gave up. You'll see two clean edges and no missing fabric. This is the same fix as the armpit repair in my easy alterations video: line it up, pin it, and sew it back along the original line.

A snag or a dropped stitch looks like a loop pulled out of the surface, or one little ladder running down. Nothing's actually gone yet, it's just out of place.

A real hole is where the yarn broke and there's a gap you could poke a finger through. Moth holes, elbow holes, the mystery hole on the front hem. This one needs the most help, and it's still a ten-minute job.

The fix for each one

You need a hand sewing needle, thread in a color that's close to the yarn (close is fine, matching is a bonus), small scissors, and a few pins. That's it.

Seam split. Inside out, pin the two edges together so the original seam line matches up. Use a backstitch, which is a straight stitch where every stitch goes back over the last one, and start about half an inch before the split and end half an inch after. That overlap is what keeps it from opening again. Knot it, done.

Snag. Don't cut it. Ever. Flip the sweater inside out, find the loop, and use the needle to gently ease the pulled yarn back toward the outside of the snag, a little at a time, until the loop disappears into the knit. If you're left with a small loop on the inside, tack it down with two tiny stitches. Nobody will ever see it.

Real hole. This is the one I'd rather show you than describe, and since I haven't filmed it, here's the video I point people to. It's Sunny TV's needle-only sweater hole repair, and it's the same idea I use on seams, just applied to a hole: inside out, start in the solid knit a little outside the hole, bridge straight across to solid knit on the other side, keep the stitches close together until the gap is covered, then weave back the other way over and under the first set. You end up with a woven patch made of thread. Watch her hands for how loose to keep it.

That's darning. Nobody tell the darning people it works with a regular needle and thread.

The mistake to skip

The beginner mistake, on seams and holes alike: pulling every stitch tight because tight feels strong. It isn't. Tight means a dime-sized dimple on the front that's more noticeable than the hole was. Knit stretches, so your mending has to stretch with it. Leave the thread relaxed and let the stitches do the work by being close together, not by being yanked.

The other thing: angora, mohair, and anything fuzzy hides mending better than anything else on earth. Smooth, fine-gauge knits like a 1950s merino show every stitch. If you've got a fuzzy one with a hole, that's the one to practice on.

If you resell: fix it or sell it as is?

Resellers ask me this constantly, and my answer is boring. A seam split, always fix it. It's five minutes and it moves the listing from "flawed" to "good condition." A snag, always fix it, same reason.

A real hole is a judgment call. If it's a true vintage piece from the 1930s to the 1980s with a good label, a small invisible mend near a seam or on a sleeve is worth it, and I say "small mended hole at the elbow, photographed" right in the listing. Disclosing it doesn't scare buyers off. Hiding it and getting a return does. If the hole is on the front chest of a smooth knit, I usually leave it, price it as a project, and let someone who likes mending have the fun. If it's moth holes plural, that sweater goes in my fabric pile, because old me would have called that trash and I call it fabric.

And check for moths before you mend anything. One hole is a hole. Three scattered holes with chewed edges means that sweater goes in a bag in the freezer for a few days before it touches the rest of your inventory. A few days in the freezer is cheap compared to the alternative.

If you'd rather buy one that's already been through my laundry room, the vintage sweaters and knitwear on the site are checked and cleaned, with every flaw named in the listing.

What I used

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A hand needle and thread, which you've already got. A fabric shaver to take the pills off before you photograph it, because a de-pilled sweater looks ten years younger. For a split that's too fiddly to sew, a dab of Mighty Mendit fabric glue on the inside will hold a sleeve lining or a cuff edge until you get to it. Everything else on my laundry shelf, including how I get the mothball smell out, is in How I clean and care for every piece of vintage I sell.

Every tutorial stays free on YouTube, and you can shop vintage and handmade at timetowastevintage.com.

Sami