How do I darn a hole in a jumper?
Weaving a new patch of fabric across the hole, why a knit needs darning rather than patching, and stopping the hole growing first.
beginner45 min3 min read
Clothing & Laundry
Washing, drying, stains and making clothes last.
109 guides in Lifestyle
How do I dry washing on a line outside properly?
Outdoor drying is free, faster than most people expect, and gently bleaches and deodorises — but wind matters more than sunshine and some fabrics should stay in the shade.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I look after merino wool base layers?
Merino base layers resist odour genuinely, so they need washing far less often than synthetics. What kills them is heat, biological detergent and rucksack abrasion — not dirt.
beginner12 min3 min readHow do I polish leather shoes to a proper shine?
Cleaning before conditioning before polishing, why wax and cream do different jobs, and the water and thin layers that produce an actual shine.
beginner30 min4 min readHow do I sew a badge or a patch onto clothing?
Positioning it so it sits where it should, holding it still while you sew, and the stitch that goes round the edge of a woven badge without showing on the front.
beginner25 min5 min readHow do I stop chlorine ruining my swimwear?
Chlorine and sun cream both attack elastane directly. Rinsing in cold fresh water within minutes of getting out is the single change that most extends the life of a swimming costume.
beginner10 min4 min readHow do I store clothes out of season?
Packing away winter or summer clothing so it comes out wearable, without moths, damp or permanent creases.
beginner1 hr 30 min2 min readHow do I wash curtains?
Curtains hold years of dust and smell, and the usual disaster is shrinkage — lined curtains have two fabrics that shrink at different rates.
beginner1 hr 30 min3 min readWhat does the spin speed on a washing machine do?
Spin speed decides how much water is left in the load, which decides drying time — and it is also the main thing that creases and wears clothes.
beginner10 min3 min readWhat is the difference between a running stitch, a backstitch and a slip stitch?
Four hand stitches compared on strength, visibility and what each is actually for, so you pick the right one for a repair.
beginner15 min3 min readWhich sewing machine should I buy as a beginner?
The handful of features that matter, why weight is a useful proxy for quality, and the case for a serviced second-hand machine.
beginner30 min3 min readWhy does my sewing machine bunch thread underneath?
The nest of loops under the fabric is almost always a top threading fault, not a bobbin fault — and the order to check things in.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy is my iron not producing steam?
Four things stop an iron steaming and three of them take under a minute to check — the setting, the water and the steam control — before scale becomes the answer.
beginner20 min5 min readHow do I clean suede and nubuck shoes?
Why suede needs brushing and abrasion rather than washing, dealing with shine and grease, and the honest limits of what comes out.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I descale a steam generator iron?
A generator boils water continuously, so it concentrates scale far faster than a steam iron — and the descaling method is model-specific because the boiler is a pressure vessel.
beginner40 min6 min readHow do I glue a sole back onto a shoe?
Cleaning and keying both faces, using a contact adhesive properly rather than a general-purpose glue, and clamping the repair for long enough.
beginner45 min4 min readHow do I remove rust marks from fabric?
Rust is iron oxide, so it needs an acid rather than a detergent — and bleach, the instinctive choice, makes it permanently worse.
beginner30 min3 min readHow do I replace a broken zip?
Buying the right replacement, unpicking without damaging the garment, and using the old stitch line as your guide.
intermediate1 hr 30 min3 min readHow do I stretch shoes that are slightly too tight?
What can genuinely be stretched and by how much, the methods that work on leather, and the ones that ruin a shoe.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I wash and care for linen?
Linen gets softer and better with every wash, so the care is mostly about not fighting the creases and not letting it dry out completely before ironing.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I wash silk?
Silk is a protein fibre, so biological detergent digests it and heat destroys the sheen — but most silk hand washes perfectly well at home.
intermediate30 min4 min readIs a clothes steamer better than an iron?
A steamer relaxes creases while a garment hangs; an iron presses them flat with pressure and heat. They do different jobs and neither replaces the other.
beginner15 min3 min readWhat is superwash wool and why does it behave differently?
Superwash wool has had its scales chemically stripped or sealed under a polymer, so it cannot felt. It also stretches more, dries slower and behaves like a different fibre in every way that matters.
beginner8 min3 min readWhat is the difference between lyocell, modal, bamboo and viscose?
All four are wood pulp re-spun into fibre, and the difference is entirely in the process. It decides wet strength, shrinkage, pilling and whether the garment survives a machine wash.
beginner10 min3 min read