10 Easy Repairs for Clothes You Were Ready to Toss

Those fuzzballs look like your sweater lost a fight with a dandelion, but pills are just fibers that broke down and clumped together, and even pricey cashmere gets them. Lay the sweater flat and run a fabric shaver gently over it, or use a sweater stone on heavy knits and wool coats and a sweater comb on delicates. Skip the lint roller because it can’t lift pills, and go easy on how often you do this since too much de-pilling can weaken the fabric.

A wool sweater goes into the dryer fit for a grown-up and comes out sized for a Cabbage Patch Kid, but it can often be coaxed back. Soak it for about 30 minutes in lukewarm water with a little hair conditioner or baby shampoo, press out the water with towels and gently stretch it back toward its original size before drying it flat. It works best when the wool still has some give, and fair warning: it will smell like whatever conditioner you used, so this is not the time to test out coconut-mango, unless you want to smell like a tiki bar.

Nothing says “ran late this morning” like a chalky white stripe on a black tee, but fresh deodorant marks come off with a little friction. Ball up a clean, dry nylon stocking and rub the marks in a circle, which lifts them without adding moisture that could set the stain. A dry towel or a clean sock works too, and so does a used dryer sheet, but skip the new ones because they can leave their own white residue on dark fabric.

Those yellow half-moons are the souvenir from every meeting where the boss said “let’s go around the room,” and they come from sweat reacting with the aluminum in your antiperspirant. Mix baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and dish soap into a paste, gently work it into the stain on a white shirt and let it sit for at least 20 minutes. Leave the chlorine bleach in the cupboard because it can turn the stain more yellow, and keep the peroxide off colored clothes since it can discolor them.

A loose button is just waiting for a handshake with someone you want to impress so it can drop and roll under the nearest chair. Sew it back on with matching thread over a toothpick or pin laid across the top, then remove the spacer and wrap the thread tightly around the stitches under the button several times to build a shank. That little stem of thread lifts the button off the fabric so it fastens easily, and it’s worth doing on coats and anything thicker than a dress shirt.

Struggling with a stuck zipper can transport you right back to being the kid stuck in your snowsuit, with your mom biting back her cursing as she yanked the zipper in every direction. Check for fabric caught in the teeth first, then rub a graphite pencil or a dry bar of soap along the teeth on both sides to help the slider glide. Wiggle the slider gently until it moves and skip the yanking, which can break the teeth or the slider.

Snipping a snag feels satisfying for about four seconds, until that spot morphs into into a hole. Instead of reaching for the scissors, push a big-eyed needle through the fabric right next to the pulled stitch, thread the loop through the eye and pull the needle through to the inside. If the fabric bunches up, gently stretch it flat and the snag disappears into the back where nobody will ever see it.

The small hole in your favorite jeans is fixable, so stop poking your finger through it and making it bigger. On denim, fuse iron-on mending tape under the hole with an iron and trim the extra, and on knitwear, darn it by weaving thread in both directions across the hole with a blunt needle and thread close to the sweater’s color. Visible mending is having a moment, so a bright patch or contrasting thread makes you look on trend instead of like you grabbed the first spool in the junk drawer.

Your black fleece looks pretty darn sharp until you walk into daylight and discover your cat has been co-wearing it all week. Slip on a clean rubber glove, dampen it slightly and sweep it over the fabric, and the pet hair and lint cling to the rubber and ball up as they lift. It works especially well on heavier fabrics like wool and fleece, while silk and other delicate fabrics do better with a dry glove.

Every favorite pair of sneakers eventually earns its own smell, and you usually find that out when a host asks everyone to take their shoes off at the door. Pull out the laces and insoles, brush off the loose dirt, then gently scrub the canvas and the insoles with a soft brush dipped in warm water mixed with a capful or two of dish soap per few cups. Sprinkle baking soda inside the shoes overnight, shake it out in the morning and let everything air dry completely before the insoles go back in.