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Mystery Holes in Your Clothes · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized, award-winning podcast is hosted by the University
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  of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello and welcome to Talking FACS. We have the information you need to strengthen
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  your family, your community, and our state.
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  I am your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
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  with Family and Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
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  We are housed in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment.
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  It has been observed that the quality of our clothing has decreased in recent
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  years due to changes in manufacturing as well as our buying habits.
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  And depending on how often something is worn, what we're doing while we wear
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  it, and how we care for it, lots of clothing will eventually get holes in the fabric.
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  But it seems that lately, more people are noticing and reporting small holes
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  right in the fabric, especially in t-shirts.
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  So my guest today, Extension Associate for Clothing, Textiles,
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  and Household Equipment, Jeanne Badgett, is here to help us solve the mystery of,
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  holes in our clothes. Welcome, Jeanne. Hi, Mindy. Thanks for having me.
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  Have you noticed this too?
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  Yes, I have actually. And so to clarify, with these holes in our clothes,
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  we're not talking about the holes that kids normally get in the knee section
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  of their play pants or holes that might happen like in the elbow area of a long sleeve shirt.
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  I mean, some clothes eventually will really wear out if you wear them all the time.
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  But we're specifically talking about those little tiny holes that appear in
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  our knit t-shirts, normally like near the belly button area on the front lower
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  half of our shirts. Sure.
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  Okay. So what do you think is causing this?
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  Yeah. So in the case of those small holes in t-shirts, it's usually due to thinner
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  fabrics that are commonly used today.
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  And abrasion, it's as simple as that.
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  So while wearing t-shirts, the fabric may be rubbing up against a belt buckle.
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  The snaps or buttons of our pants or zippers, seatbelts, all sorts of things.
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  Another contributor to that abrasion causing the tiny holes happens when we
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  lean up against a counter, like the kitchen counter, for example, when doing the dishes.
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  You know, there can be small nicks in the counter that cause snags on our shirts
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  that eventually lead to these small holes.
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  So pretty much anytime your clothes are rubbing up against something,
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  abrasion can occur and wear down the fabrics, yarns, and fibers leading to these small holes.
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  And so someone who is vertically challenged like me is definitely going to notice
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  that around Around the belly button area.
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  That's right where the countertop hits me when I am preparing food or watching
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  dishes, as you said, as opposed to someone like my husband, who is six foot
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  five, and his might happen lower because he's taller.
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  So it's going to be, you know, around the hip area for him.
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  Yes. Yeah, exactly. Definitely with the kitchen counter situation.
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  But regardless of your height, though, if it's going to rub up against your
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  belt buckle or button, that sort of thing, it's going to happen,
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  unfortunately, with just a lot of the knit fabrics today are a little bit thinner.
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  Yeah, I was going to say, our quality of our fabrics isn't quite what we had
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  in the past. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
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  Plus, a lot of consumers want, I think some consumers really want that thinner t-shirt too.
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  That could be, yeah. But anyway, go ahead. So is there anything that we can
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  do to prevent these tiny holes from showing up in our shirts?
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  Sure, sure. Well, the first thing would be in general,
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  just careful laundering practices, because we can get the little tiny holes
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  in other areas of our clothes too, or the t-shirts, in an area where we're not
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  rubbing up against the counter or seatbelt because that abrasion can happen in the wash.
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  For example, you know, if we wash, let's say, a few pairs of jeans in a load
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  with some lightweight t-shirts and we didn't zip the zippers on our jeans,
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  those zippers could catch and pull on the knit t-shirt fabric and cause a hole.
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  Okay. Yeah. So that makes perfect sense. So that's a good reason to try to sort
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  laundry, which we have talked about in the past, how important it is to sort
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  laundry and avoid washing heavier things with our lightweight things and
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  And definitely, we should always make sure to zip the zippers on our clothing
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  before putting them in the wash. Yeah.
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  But I always unbutton my clothing before I wash it to avoid stress.
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  Actually, yeah. Well, that is, no, you should. You should unbutton your buttons,
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  like shirt, and unbutton all your buttons, except in the case of pants.
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  Zip your zippers and button that top button. Yes. Right.
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  So, yeah. That's what I do. Okay. But the other thing, so with preventing those
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  holes too, the big thing, also wearing an apron while doing things around the house is a good idea.
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  I actually wear an apron a lot while I'm home. It seems like I'm always standing at the kitchen sink.
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  I wonder why. So I found that by wearing an apron,
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  I not only keep my shirts cleaner and prevent my clothing from getting dirty
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  on the front, but I'm also preventing that unnecessary abrasion on the front
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  of my shirts from leaning up against the sink or even when you carry stuff.
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  Like if you're moving stuff around your house and you're holding stuff and you're
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  kind of balancing it maybe on your stomach, it's just abrading your shirt.
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  And the interesting thing is my apron, it actually has now, it has a small hole
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  forming in the front of it.
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  Luckily, there's a front pocket there too. But literally, it's right where I
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  would normally be leaning up against the counter.
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  My grandmother wore an apron every day of her life as long as I knew her.
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  And she passed away when she was 90. So I knew her a lot of years.
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  But, you know, we have her aprons. And many of them have pouches that she put
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  on, on the aprons. and they're beautiful works of art because she made all of them.
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  And, you know, many of them have these patches that she put on her aprons because
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  they wore out in that area that we don't leave out our shirts wearing out because
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  so many people don't wear aprons now. So yes, wear those aprons.
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  Yes, it's a fashion. We're bringing it back. We're bringing the apron back.
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  Exactly, exactly. So are there any suggestions for what we do if we find tiny
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  holes in our clothes? What can we do?
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  Sure, sure. Well, I'd say the first thing is just if you see those little holes
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  in your clothes, think about is it from that normal wear and tear or abrasion?
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  Because you would definitely want to rule out the possibility of pests that
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  eat our clothes. Like if it's, oh, is this a moth hole?
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  But a lot of times now it is just those thinner fabrics that are just wearing out.
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  So, what you can do, well, first, prevention helps, and that's even purchasing
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  clothing that's well-made, using high-quality yarns and fabrics.
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  They'll be less likely to get holes due to abrasion, but not everybody can...
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  Sometimes we're limited to our budget with what we can purchase.
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  So if you have those holes in the front of your shirt or even in other areas,
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  they can be repaired with decorative stitching. It's called visible mending.
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  You can just get creative by sewing that or applying a decorative patch.
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  Or I will iron on a small circular patch on the inside of the t-shirt where the little hole is.
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  So it's not so noticeable. But some people actually suggest to preemptively
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  iron on a whole section of a lightweight knit interfacing on the inside of the
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  front of a t-shirt to provide more support and prevent those holes from happening.
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  But I don't know. I think that if that's not really well done or if the interfacing
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  is too stiff, it might make the front of your t-shirt look kind of weird. Yeah.
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  Oh, yeah. I mean, it's not ideal to get holes in our clothes.
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  It happens, but basically with those little tiny holes
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  that people are reporting more in the front of your shirt where you're rubbing
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  against your belt or the counter is just to prevent getting holes in the first
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  place by wearing an apron or if you know you're going to be doing a lot of work
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  that would cause abrasion just to wear something that you don't mind getting holes in.
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  Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Have your work wear and your going out wear.
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  Yeah, exactly. To make life a little bit easier for you.
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  Jeannie, thanks so much for this enlightening conversation about holes.
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  Sure thing, certainly.
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  Sherlock, from now on, if you're just tuning in, you are listening to Talking
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  FACS, and we're here to solve all your mysteries, or at least the ones we know the answers to.
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  Music.