Jennifer writes:
I’ve noticed the wonderful jeans/pants mending tutorials you guys have posted this week. They’re useful and informative, but here’s my conundrum: My jeans always wear out in the, uhm, crotch area first. (One of the less-discussed perils of being a bit overweight is ones legs rubbing together) The jeans are always in great condition otherwise, but these holes make them unwearable. Any tips or techniques for making repairs before I recycle these jeans into purses and bags?
I’ve had crotch holes in jeans before, and it really stinks! I tried zigzagging over the tear with similar color thread, but ended up with an uncomfortable build up of thread that just hurt when I wore them. It’s a delicate operation for sure, but I’d say that now that I have plenty of other types of patching experience, that a reverse-applique technique with knit jersey is probably the best approach. Using thread that’s the same color as your denim, you can recycle an old blue t-shirt or buy some knit jersey from the fabric store. Use Goli’s reverse applique tutorial, and look at my “stylish stitches” jeans patching tutorial, and make a compromise between the two. You can hand stitch the patch to avoid an uncomfortable build up of thread. Take pictures and let us know how it works out!
Kristy writes:
Your mending theme has got me thinking about items I’ve been meaning to repair. Top on this list is a lovely hand knit skirt my father’s grandmother made as a teenager in the mid-1930’s. It is starting to develop holes, and I’m afraid that it will simply unravel if I wear it in this state. I can darn and patch with the best of them, but I was wondering if there is a better way to repair hand knit and hand crochet pieces? Can you splice in to repair the actual stitches somehow?
What I worry about with this skirt is that if it’s developing holes in multiple places, the delicate yarn must be disintegrating because it’s so old. To patch the holes, you can use a grafting stitch (also called a kitchener stitch) with a small tapestry needle to sew in the path the yarn should take. It’s essentially the same as a duplicate stitch, except you won’t be duplicating right inside the hole, you’ll be placing new yarn there. I would follow the path of the yarn all around the area of the hole including through the hole itself. In my research I also came across the term “Swiss Darning” for this technique. The larger problem still needs to be addressed, though. If I had such a skirt, I would definitely want to show it off, but wouldn’t want to damage it further by wearing it around town. Maybe you could sew a fabric lining to which you could carefully affix the skirt? If you sew the knitting to this fabric base in various places (down the sides, along the waistband and hem, for example), the knitting wouldn’t hang with as much weight, but rather rest on the strong fabric substrate, thereby alleviating strain on the fibers. I hope that helps! We definitely want to see pictures, so send ’em over or add them to the CRAFT Flickr pool.
If you have a crafty question, please email it to me at becky@craftzine.com. You can also make a video of your question, send me pictures along with your question, or even send us an @ reply on Twitter to ask!
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