About a month ago (I guess...my memory is not what it used to be) dear son J asked me to fix a rip in his work coat. It was a nice, heavy coat by Dickies that he had bought on DEEP discount (I LOVE that the boy has learned so well!). However, it had acquired a nasty, almost 4" long, thread frayed vertical rip transversing the hood seam. Could I fix it? (Sorry, I forgot to get pictures! The "blogging" mindset has not yet fully taken hold and I often remember photos "after the fact"!)
I took it to up to my "Ellie" and attempted to sew the rip shut, folding the frayed edges under. However, every time the needle pierced the material it frayed even more. I kept expanding my sewing area hoping to find "fresh" material that held the stitches. Finally, with a half inch wide area of stitching (see the area centered over the label?), I thought I had finally stabilized the fray.
J wore the coat for about a week and it became apparent that my "fix" was not going to hold. J told me to fix it "anyway you can", it was only his work coat to wear into the freezers and he didn't care how it looked.
I pulled out my Liquid Stitch and cut a piece of thin white cotton a little bit bigger than the large frayed area. I applied the glue liberally, added the cotton patch and watched as the glue soaked through the threads and the cotton. After allowing it to dry for 24 hours I cut a piece of beige denim 1/2" bigger all around than the white cotton. I applied Liquid Stitch to the whole back of the denim and glued it on top of the white cotton.
I then began my search for some type of heavy material that would match the coat well enough to make a nice looking patch. The closest I could find was a piece of upholstery fabric for $1 at Calico Home. It was CLOSE, but still not as close as I would like. However, I was running out of stores to find a better match, and J DID need the coat for working in the freezer!
I had noticed during my handling of the coat that there were two interior pockets made of the outer material. One would be perfect for the patch...but I was not going to destroy a pocket without J's say-so! Crazy, I'm not, lol! Fortunately he stopped by the house and I showed him the options. Grabbing my seam ripper he attempted to remove the one pocket, but it was sewn down very security and he was getting frustrated, especially when a small rip appeared in the jacket! I told him to use my "good" scissors and cut the pocket material as close to the seam as he could. I knew I could carefully remove the remains of the pocket later.
After gluing and folding over a 1/4" seam in the pocket material, I then folded over another 1/2" all the way around, pinned it in place and sewed two lines of stitching to hold the patch. I'm happy with the results and if he can get another year or two out of the "work" jacket, I will be happy. Oh... and I have NO idea why the picture is all faded out! Yes, I'm a newbie, lol.
I then sat and removed three quarters of the inside pocket remnants, leaving just enough attached that I can teach him the "proper" way to rip a seam when he comes to pick up the coat. I even added a tiny dab of Liquid Stitch to the slight hole made at the reinforced area of the pocket (see the little bit of white at the top right?) A nice, warm, workable jacket saved and another journey in my frugal adventures begun.
A day or two after I finished J's mending my mom brought over her robe. Once again, sorry no pictures! The zipper and part of the collar had come unsewn. Mom had attempted to hand stitch it back together (don't ask me why when I gave her my "first" sewing machine a few years ago), but with the first washing her mending failed. A zipper gets too much pulling and stressing for hand stitching to be very permanent.
So, while mom sat in my rocker and we talked, I mended her robe. It only took about 10 minutes. It would have gone a lot quicker had I not been having a bad "tremor" day, but it was only about six inches of sewing so I could soldier through...stopping every few stitches to try to get control of my hands. Another article of clothing saved and yet another mending experience to add to my repetoir!
