Life Hack: Three sewing hacks everyone should know to make mending easier

Save yourself time and effort with this handy sewing tips

You can prevent your shirt buttons from fraying and falling off with one easy step

Turn up jeans and trousers without touching a needle and thread 

Now that skinny jeans no longer have our wardrobes in a chokehold, trousers and jeans are getting looser and, as anyone who squelched their way through the rain in the 90s will tell you, there is no escape from the rising dampness of puddles if the hem of your leg is long enough to trail on the ground.

You can easily avoid ripped and fraying clothes by turning up a hem, but if you do not want to or cannot use a needle and thread, you have another option. Hemming tape is a cheap and easy way to turn up not just trousers but curtains and other fabrics as well.

You can pick it up in many homeware shops and supermarkets for a few euro and it is a handy item to keep in your sewing kit. Simply cut the tape to size and apply it to the material you want to turn up, folded inside the fabric to your desired length. Press a hot iron on the folded material in which your tape is concealed to activate the adhesive it contains. It will stick to the fabric and keep it in place.

Make your shirt buttons last longer 

Many dress buttons are secured with a thin piece of thread that can easily become loose or frayed. This is a particular problem with shirts and a frayed or loose button can easily look unsightly or fall off. To avoid this happening, reach for a bottle of nail polish.

Apply a coat or two of clear nail polish over the thread to both secure it in place and to prevent it from fraying or getting dirty. But be careful — make sure you only apply it to the thread and button and that none of the polish makes its way onto the fabric of your shirt as it could damage the material.

Sharpen your scissors with tin foil 

You might have all the tools and skills needed to perform some sewing magic but if the scissors you are using are blunt you will quickly become frustrated hacking at the fabric. To combat this, there is an item that is probably in your kitchen that can easily sharpen any scissors: tin foil.

Your humble aluminium foil is quite the multitasker. Cut off a length of it and fold it a number of times so you have a thick piece of foil that is still thin enough to cut through. Cut through the folded foil with your scissors to sharpen the edges of the blades.

This method will also help to remove any dirt from the blunt surfaces so you get a cleaner cut in every possible way.