BrambleStitches

The Man’s cammies take a serious beating at work. I don’t know what he does while he’s wearing them, but whatever it is, I think it must involve sandpaper and scissors, because that’s certainly the only way I could get my clothes to look that way.

Today’s damage report wasn’t so bad; just two missing buttons, and some worn through spots on the inseams near the ankles. When Erik reenlisted last year, I bought myself a big ol’ honkin’ spool of thread, because I knew I’d need it (and not just for cammies, either–khaki is the best neutral ever! I use it on everything, especially quilting). Yep, this baby is bigger than your average cone of serger thread, even. Stats: Gutermann (only the best, for me) 5500 yard cone, $16 at SewTrue. While I love my huge cone of thread, it doesn’t actually fit on my
thread post (not even my "large spool" auxiliary post), so I wind two bobbins from it, then use one as my top
thread.

This is what the inseams look like. If you look closely you can see that I’ve already repaired these once before with a zig zag stitch.

Here’s the stitch function I use to mend spots like this. My manual calls it a "darning stitch" but I’ve seen it called "mending stitch" also. There is absolutely nothing special about this stitch, it is just a glorified straight stitch. It stitches forward and backward, only moving the needle position slightly at each reversal to cover a wider area. You could do exactly the same thing with a straight stitch, just stitch forward and reverse, and shift the fabric slightly with each pass.

Here are the repairs.

And lastly, new buttons. I have a bunch of military surplus buttons, but they’re all forest cammy colors. Luckily, it doesn’t matter, because these are totally hidden, and anyway, I’m pretty sure the regs don’t mention anything about what color your buttons are. Besides, if someone is inspecting your fly, they’re way to close, even if it is your superior officer.

Life in the Corps, Mending, Sewing