Do You Make Your Own Clothes?

[blueerica]

Last night, I was in the middle of a clothes fixing disaster! I can generally hem pants, fix buttons... basic stuff, though nothing fancy at all. I had a knit sweater with a pocket in the front... something made by some Bangladeshi child, I'm sure. I love it - it looks great and is one of the most comfy things I've bought in ages. So here's the problem:

The pocket in the front started to come undone. I thought it was a random thread, so I snipped a bit off the end and tied a knot (foolishly hoping the problem would go away), though it didn't seem to help. Absent-mindedly wearing it one day, whatever was holding the pocket to the sweater started to come undone. So, I pinned it, and set it aside to fix at a future date. That date was last night.

I tried to hand stitch it back together and couldn't get it to work. Clearly, I didn't need thread, I needed thread or yarn of the same thickness of the original. I brought it to my grandmother who was able to put it back together (with the right color and all) - though it still doesn't look quite right, it'll do the trick and stay together enough for me.

For our knitting mavens - how would you fix something like this? Is there a special kind of stitch you might use?