A Lighter, a Ham and a Very Rare Hook
Behind the studio door
A good clothing repair is meant to go unnoticed: a seam that lies flat, a corner that holds its shape, a hole you can no longer find. Getting there relies on specialist tools that most people never see, and on Makers who know how and when to use them.
Below are some of the tools on our Makers' benches, what each one does, and the reasoning behind it. It's a small selection from a much larger kit, and it covers clothing only. Shoes and bags use a different set of tools- we'll open that drawer another time. We chatted to two of our tailoring Makers to find out which tools they couldn’t do without. Ellie has spent 11 working on bridal and evening wear and her bench is usually covered in gowns. Hattie specialises in knitwear and reweaving and learned her craft from her grandmother.
The lighter
Used to seal the cut ends of synthetic threads. Polyester and nylon are thermoplastics, meaning they soften and melt under heat. A brief flame fuses the fibres at the tip so the end can't fray or slip back through the stitching.
The catch: Natural fibres such as cotton, linen, wool and silk don't melt. They char. The same goes for viscose, which is made from plant cellulose. So before a flame goes anywhere near a thread, the Maker needs to know what it's made of.
Where skill comes in: Too much heat scorches the surrounding fabric or leaves a hard bead that rubs against the skin.
Maker Ellie tells us, "When Clients visit for a fitting, they will often give the lighter on my desk a second look, as if to question why it's sitting there amongst all these beautiful gowns. Of course, I have to reassure them - it's actually a tool to stop fraying fabric. A lighter is a really helpful tool to have, however if you're not certain of the composition of a fabric, then you really can't consider using it!"
The overlocker
Also called a serger. When fabric is cut, its edge is "raw": the threads it's woven from are loose and will gradually fray away. An overlocker trims that edge neatly and wraps it in thread as it goes, sealing it so it can't unravel. Turn almost any T-shirt or pair of trousers inside out and you'll see an overlocked edge along the seams: a narrow band of tightly looped threads running along the fabric's edge, a bit like a tiny woven braid. Different to a sewing machine, overlocker machines usually runs three or four threads at once, each with its own tension, and threading one is famously fiddly.
Why it takes a Maker: Replacing a seam so it matches the original factory finish means balancing all those tensions to the fabric in front of you. Hattie tells us "Changing the threads in my overlocker usually takes longer to do than the repair itself, but it's worth it. For anything stretchy, like jersey, knitwear or stretch denim, it's what gives you a seam that moves with the fabric instead of snapping."
The tailor's ham
A firm, curved cushion, shaped (yes) like a ham and traditionally stuffed tight with sawdust. An ironing board is flat; a body isn't. Makers press curved areas over the ham, such as shoulders, sleeve heads, darts and collars, so a repair keeps the garment's shape instead of flattening it.
Why it takes a Maker: Knowing which curve of the ham fits which part of which garment comes from handling thousands of them. Ellie explains "A sleeve and a collar will need completely different parts of the ham. You learn that by getting it wrong a few times."
The Fabricon reweaver
At first glance it looks like a seam ripper. It's actually a fine hook used for invisible reweaving: threads taken from a hidden part of the garment, such as a deep hem or an inside seam, are worked back into a moth hole or small tear one at a time, until the damage is rebuilt rather than covered.
The tool came with the Fabricon method, a mid-century American reweaving correspondence course. Its hook saves rethreading a needle for every single thread. Today the tools are hard to find, and thus, treasured.
Why it takes a Maker: Invisible reweaving only works on woven fabrics, it's painstaking, and only a small number of Makers do it well. Hattie tells us, "My grandmother gave me her reweaver, she doesn't use it anymore. She told me that reweaving used to be very common and many of her friends would reweave clothes often. These skills have disappeared so quickly over just two generations. I love my reweaver. The most difficult part is the patience and concentration that's needed to get it right. You have to focus on a very small area of the fabric for a long time!"
The tool is only half of it
You could buy every tool on this page tomorrow. You wouldn't get the same repair. What our Makers bring is the bit you can't order online: the eye that matches a thread to a 20-year-old fabric, the feel for how hard to push a collar point, the judgement to know which thread will melt and which will burn.
Between them, our Makers have hundreds of years of experience across tailoring, knitwear, denim and more. Every tool on their benches is there because they know exactly when, and when not, to use it.
Leave it with us
Got a piece you love that's seen better days? Send it to our Makers and let the experts take it from here. And follow us on Instagram at @the.seam.uk for more peeks behind the studio door.