Reinforce a Tearing Pocket Corner with a Cloth Stay

Turn the garment inside out and find the pocket corner that is pulling loose or growing thin. Reinforcing is mending done before the break, so back the corner while the cloth around it is still sound — the pocket corners of work garments are among the first places to give way.

From scrap cloth, cut a stay of the same weight as the garment or a little lighter. Make it large enough to cover the whole strained corner and reach into sound cloth on every side — about 2 cm (3/4 in) past the worn area all around.

If the scrap frays, turn each raw edge under about 3 mm (1/8 in) and finger-press it flat before sewing. A loose raw edge sheds threads inside the pocket and works the repair loose.

Cut about 45 cm (18 in) of cotton thread, No. 40 to No. 70, and draw it two or three times across a cake of beeswax; the wax protects thread that must bear strain and keeps it from knotting. Thread a sharps needle, No. 5 to No. 10, and knot the long end.

Lay the stay over the corner on the wrong side, its grain running the same way as the garment's. Pin it, then baste it down with a few loose stitches so it cannot shift while you sew.

Sew parallel rows of running stitch across the whole stay, 6 to 13 mm (1/4 to 1/2 in) apart, each row catching both the stay and the garment. Cover the whole stay, not only its corners: rows of stitching spread the strain, while a stay tacked at its corners alone bags away from the cloth and does nothing.

At the pocket corner itself, work a bar of stitching back and forth over the strained point — several short stitches laid side by side along the same line until they build a firm bar. This is the reinforcement used at each corner of a patch pocket and at the ends of a placket.

Draw out the basting and turn the garment right side out. The corner should lie flat with the stay reaching past every strained thread into sound cloth; reinforced this way, the corner outlasts the garment.