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It happens to the best of us. One errant tug or wild ride in the dryer and the drawcord has come loose from your favorite hooded sweatshirt, workout shorts, pants, or swimming trunks. Don’t worry – putting that drawstring back in your gear is easier than you’d imagine. It just takes a little bit of patience. So, take a deep breath, really center yourself, and read our guide for tips on how to restring a hoodie or other drawcord-donning gear.

Before fixing your drawstring, you’ll need to get all the necessary equipment. We’ve compiled this thorough shopping checklist, in case you have to hit the store:

What you’ll need:

Safety pin (1)

Oh wait, that’s it? Seems simple enough. A paper clip might also do the trick, but a safety pin is less likely to fall off inside of the garment.

Here’s where the patience comes in; this might take a while – but if you follow these simple steps, your drawstring will be back where it belongs.

How to Restring Your Drawstring in 5 Easy Steps.

Step 1: Attach safety pin to drawstring.

Attach the safety pin to one end of the drawstring. You’ll probably want to pin it about an inch from the end of the cord. Make sure it’s nice and secure, because you don’t want to have to fish it out of the garment later.

Step 2: Insert the safety pin and cord into the gear.

Doesn’t really matter which way you go, so choose whichever direction is easiest based on your handedness and handiness. Scrunch the fabric up to create a shorter path inside of the hoodie (or waistband) and jam the end of the drawcord in as far as it’ll go.

Step 3: Work the safety pin through the garment.

Working from the outside of the gear, push and pull the safety pin and attached cord through the hood or waistband, smoothing the fabric over the pin as you move. Restringing a hooded sweatshirt or exercise gear waistband is a little like pushing a tube of toothpaste out of a tube – but a lot less minty.

Step 4: Be patient, it might take longer than you think.

We never said restringing your gear would be quick, just that it was easy. Don’t cancel all your plans (unless you were already planning on that) but rushing the process isn’t going to making fixing your drawstring easier. Eventually, you’ll work your way through to the other drawcord hole and the safety pin will pop out for easy recovery.

Step 5: Tie it up.

Finally, tie a knot at both ends of the drawcord. This will help prevent the drawstring from slipping out of your garment, and it’ll be a nice chance to show off your knot-tying skills.

There you have it. You are now officially an expert in restringing hoodies, shorts, pants, or any other gear with a drawcord.

Functional drawcords are essential to making sure your garments fit right and can impact how quickly they wear out. Regular maintenance like this can keep your favorite gear in your workout rotation for years to come. Keep this in mind before you toss that old pair of shorts just because the drawstring fell out – that gear might have some life left in it.

For more tips on protecting, cleaning, and caring for your PUMA gear, check out our other RE:HACKS guides.