Repair a tear in your blouse

This vintage seventies blouse had a big tear on its back, and could no longer be worn. Some fusible woven stay tape and embroidery floss saved the day in the end. But how exactly do you use those to repair such a tear in your blouse?

Repair a tear in your blouse

1. Turn your blouse inside out, and arrange the fabric and the tear in their original form as much as possible.
2. If necessary, cut off any loose hanging threads.
3. Use fusible interlining pattern or seam tape to stick the tear back together, so your fabric won't move. What type of fusible interlining to use best, depends on the type of fabric your blouse is made of. If you have no idea what to choose, take your blouse with you to the shop, and ask for advice there. Place your fusible interlining or seam tape over the tear on the inside of your blouse, with the sticky side down. Make sure you cover the whole tear. Iron everything in place.
   
   On the outside, it already looks like this:
   
4. Search for embroidery yarn or sewing thread in the same colours as your blouse and the design on your blouse.
   
5. Embroider over the tear, following the original design as much as possible. In this case I used a satin stitch to embroider the background colour, and some back stitches to embroider the flowers.

All done!

Because I used the same colours as the original design, you need to look twice to actually see where the tear used to be. If you'd like your repair to jump out more, you can always opt to use contrasting colours instead.

Do you have a blouse with a tear lying around that needs fixing? Feel free to drop me a line, and together we can find a solution.