How I Fixed A Tear In Our Microfiber Couch

Let me start by saying, I stumbled upon these couches on Craigslist for only $50! For both! We needed more seating and I can't bring myself to spend thousands of dollars on couches for more than a couple reasons.

1. We don't really have that kind of money to begin with. If we did I still don't think we would buy new couches.
2. Just why?
3. We're moving to San Diego soon, so we don't want to spend money on furniture that very possibly won't even fit in our next apartment/house/where ever we end up.
4. If I can find something used that still looks ok and serves its purpose, why not?
5. I don't like to be wasteful. Example: I used parts of our old (very very prehistoric old), yucky, love seat and made a bed for our cat Mr. Tucker. :)

 

           He likes to sleep in the sun.

He also likes to watch the squirrels.

           

And the most important reason for no new couches....
6. The PUPPY... thats all that needs to be said.

So for $50.00 I'd say we did pretty good. Yes, there are 4 tears in the couch. Three of which are on the same seat cushion, and there is one small one on the love seat arm rest. Otherwise, they're clean, almost no stains, no smells and we found a nerf dart in one of the cushion cracks. (Score!) I'm happy. I kind of just ignored the tears for a while. The guy who sold us the couches used glue to hold together the big rip. (not what I would have done, but to each his own. Men...) It was actually holding up but I knew that it was only temporary. So, I wanted to tackle this, once and for all.  I'm a little concerned about how I'm going to save microfiber covered in hard super glue but, whats the worst that could happen? I can't ruin my already ruined $50 couches. Muahahaha.

I decided I would conduct surgery. I'm giving my couch stitches. Quite literally.

You need:

• Fray Check or any other fray stopping liquid
• A needle
• Thread that matches your couch. The thicker the thread the better. 
• Some sort of sewing skill (not necessary, just helpful) 

Now this is actually relatively simple. I'm not the best seamstress (not by a long shot!), but if you actually take your time, line up your stitching, and keep your thread tight, this can actually turn out halfway decent! Its better than having a huge hole in your couch.

The first thing you need to do is carefully and conservatively put your Frey Check just around the edges of the tear you are going to stitch up. It WILL make the fabric darker, don't worry! What this does is makes sure it won't rip any more and gives the thread a little support.

Wait about 30 mins.

The fray check is the verrrry thin darker line around the tear
this was the "super glued" tear hence the weird discoloration 

This is the fun part. You are going to use a ladder stitch. Make sure you have enough thread and put a knot at the end. I used regular thread and doubled it.  To do this, double your length. After you thread your needle, hold both ends of the thread letting the needle fall to the middle. Knot these two ends together.

Yes, I'm a 25 year old college graduate and I screwed up the alphabet. Judge me.

• It's not a hard stitch. To start (A) you want to take your needle and go from the inside of the tear and push the needle up (from the inside, to the outside) and pull it all the way through. So, the knot at the end of your thread is inside the tear you are stitching up. 

• Now, take your needle to the other side of the tear (B) and push it through, from the outside of the tear to the inside of the tear. Pull it tight.

• Take your needle,  push it up through the fabric from the inside to the outside (C) Pull it tight.

• SO, the "...." between (B) and (C) in the drawing, is the thread on the inside of the tear. Now you do the same thing all over again on the other side.

• On the other side of the tear (D) push your needle from the top or outside of the tear to the inside and pull it tight. This is where you will start to see your first stitch close up tight.

• Again, push the needle up from the inside of the tear to the outside (E)

Repeat this process until the entire thing is closed up. I noticed that it looks best when your stitches are directly across from each other. And when your (B) and (C), (D) and (E), etc stitches are close to each other 

To secure my stitching when i was done, I went under the thread of my last stitch and made a small knot. Then pushed my needle up the center of the close tear. Pulled it out and cut the thread as close to the "tear" as I could. 

If you want you can practice the stitch on paper. Just use two sides of a piece of paper as your "tear" and sew them back together using the ladder stitch described above.

I have no idea if this is the "right way" to do this. But its what I did and it worked.

Mine isn't the neatest sewing job, but I also rushed through it because, I just wanted to close up those tears. Take your time, and it will come out almost perfect. I rushed and I'm shocked at how "not bad" mine looks.

Photos coming soon!!! 

Camera died and the couches and camera charger are now in storage so I can't retake pictures. But, I ordered a new charger, thank you amazon prime, so I should have it shortly.