BrambleStitches

Here’s some mending I’ve been meaning to get to for over two years. When Gavin was born, I ordered two new crib mattress pads. By the time they had been washed two or three times (so by the end of the first week) they had started developing holes in the super-thin material on the sides of the mattress pad. I always meant to replace the torn parts with real fabric, but I just finally got around to it today.

You can see the original, interfacing-like material here, with giant holes. This is actually a “small” hole on this corner. The other mattress pad is so badly torn that the whole corner of the pad just flops around on the mattress.

First I just cut all of the yucky material off. I left the seam in tact, because I didn’t want to make the pad any smaller. Then I used the cut off bits as a guide and cut new pieces of cotton fabric 9″ wide. If I had a long enough piece of fabric, I would have just made one really long strip, but as it was I had to piece these together on my serger to get a long enough piece.

Next I serged the new fabric onto the pad, while trying not to trim any of the pad with the serger knife. I didn’t actually measure the length of the fabric strip, I just started at one side and left a few inches free at the beginning and end.

After serging all the way around, I trimmed off the extra fabric, and serged the two short ends together.

After serging the two short ends together, just go back and serge what’s left of the little gap.

I couldn’t get a good picture this afternoon, but I serged the elastic on all the way around the edge of the new fabric. I stretched the elastic as tight as I could while sewing.

Left is the repaired mattress pad, right is the other “original” pad, which just came out of the washer and is now waiting its turn for the same repair.

The repaired mattress pad (top) looks better now than it did when it was new.

Mending

I’m not sure which of my step-cousins this little sweater was originally knit for, but it made the rounds of everyone who would fit in it–probably back and forth between Canada, California, and Oregon until everyone had outgrown it. When Olga was born, Grandma Kathy’s very first great-grand child, it came to us. Somewhere along the way it got a little hole. Olga and Gavin have long since outgrown the sweater, so I’m going to fix it up and put it away for the time when my cousins start having families.

Here’s the little hole. I only found two yarn ends, and most of the stitches are still where they belong, to this shouldn’t be too tricky. I’ve been looking for several weeks for matching yarn. The original is probably red heart baby, but I couldn’t find anything locally. Finally I realized that this was a tiny enough spot that I could just fix it in white (there is white in the variegated pattern of the yarn).

This hole isn’t too large, so for the most part I’ll be able to “trace” where the stitches should be. I started my repair where all the knitting is still sound above and below, and I brought my needle out through the same stitch where the broken yarn tail comes out.

Now I’ll just trace the path of the original stitches. This is just like grafting or Kitchener stitch, and only a little more difficult than duplicate stitch. You go down through the front of the first stitch, then up from the back of the stitch next to it.

Then down through the front of the first stitch, and up through the back of the stitch next to it.

I only had to replace three stitches to fix the hole, but I extended the repair in each direction by one stitch, because I wanted the anchor to be in sound fabric. Now I can finally treat that spot of dirt, without worrying that I’ll make the hole worse.

On the back I wove in the ends and trimmed them off. I didn’t trim the original yarn ends (the damaged bits) because they had pretty much felted in place, and I didn’t want to tempt fate.

Mending

Well here I am catching up again. Forgive me.

Let me introduce you to an old friend: Big White Bear. Imaginative, huh? My parents gave me this big bear for my first Christmas, and I don’t think he’s ever had any other name. It’s really time for his bath, but he’s so big that if I just throw him in the washer he’ll get all bent out of shape, and he’ll probably never dry. He’s feeling pretty lumpy anyway, so I’m just going to re-stuff him.

Yeah, I don’t know what that stuff is either. But it’s definitely gross.

First, I carefully opened up a seam in an inconspicuous place. It’s just wide enough for me to get my hand in with a handful of stuffing.

I’m throwing away all of the old stuffing. I’m sure it’s totally infested with dust mites by now, and I’m really not keen on trying to save it. Polyfil was 30% off at Hancocks the other day, so I stocked up (I got a 10 pound box).

Before washing, I turned him inside out, this way all the little bits of leftover stuffing and gunk will come off. I washed him in my washing machine on the presoak/stain/delicate/handwash setting, with a tiny bit of detergent and some OxyClean, then I let him air dry over night.

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The next day:

I didn’t get a “look how clean I am” shot, but ALL the stains came out. Yay! He was snowy white, just like the old days. Now he’s right side out again, and Olga is helping me stuff him. Remember to stuff the extremities first, then work toward the body.

I’m using heavy duty thread to sew up the seam with an invisible stitch called a ladder stitch. Knot your thread on the inside of the seam, then take one stitch on each side of the opening, so your thread crosses over the top of the opening only…

…like this. Only work about an inch at a time, then pull it snug…

…like this. If you try to go too far before you pull your stitches tight, you’re likely to break your thread.

Good as new (maybe better!).

Mending

I was just feeling too crummy to do anything for the past few days (on the mend, finally), so I’ll play catch up with today’s post.

My sweet, wonderful friend Maggie made this granny square afghan for me and Erik when we got married. We love it dearly, but the corners where the grannies are joined were starting to come apart.

Can you see what I did? I took matching blue thread and triple zig-zagged the edges together. It’s barely noticeable at all. In fact, I doubt anyone else will ever see the stitches at all.

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This isn’t really true mending, but my definition is fairly relaxed, so I’m going to go with it. I knit these socks out of a wool/acrylic blend, and after washing many many times, the acrylic all fuzzed up and turned into little green ugly bits. I just yanked them all off, and the socks look much better now.

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This was my major accomplishment of the day. This is Erik’s “Oregon” sweatshirt, so it HAD to be saved. The seam that joins the waist ribbing to the lower edge of the sweatshirt was starting to pop open. This is a seam that was originally serged, then coverstitched. I got a new-to-me used serger a couple months ago (our early Christmas gift to me) that can do a coverstitch, so I’m going to duplicate the original seam as best I can.

I first serged the ribbing back on all around (I chopped off about 1/4″ of the seam allowance, so the finished sweatshirt will be 1/2″ shorter than it was originally). Then I switched my machine over to do a wide coverstitch, and went around the ribbing with that.

In the end, I think it looks pretty good.

Mending

My friend gave me this skirt when she could no longer wear it (she’s expecting her second beautiful child to be born in May) and it just needed a teensy bit of fixin’. This kind of satiny ribbon is notorious for fraying. Stare at it wrong and it will unravel right in front of your eyes.

I snipped of the yucky bit and treated the end with Fray Check. I may have gone a little overboard, but I want to make sure it behaves for many trips though the laundry. Let the fray check dry thoroughly before you do anything with it.

It’s a little messy on the inside (you can still see what’s left of the frayed ribbon, where it was once attached in the seam allowance), but I just wove the ribbon back through the lace where it was supposed to be and stitched it down in the seam allowance.

Mending

This is the first quilt I ever made (I was eight) and after pretty much constant use since then, one of the corners in the patch work has come loose. It’s just a little spot, so I’m going to jump on it now, before it turns into a big mess.

My thread is a little bit brighter than the blue fabric, but it won’t show when I’m finished anyway.

I’m knotting my thread inside the seam allowance so it won’t show.

I’ve tucked the tail of my thread to the inside of the quilt, and brought my needle out a bit below where the seam has come loose.

Now I’ll take one short stitch in one fabric…

…and line up the exit of the first stitch with the entry of the next, and take another stitch.

And repeat…

…while tucking the raw edge of the fabric under and continuing to cover the original stitching line.

When I get to the corner, I take a couple whip stitches to keep everything secure, and knot my thread.

Good as new. I’ll probably hand quilt this throw when I get my quilting frame set up. Right now it’s just tied, but with the frequency that this gets washed, it could use the extra help.

Mending

We’ve all been hit with whatever cold Erik brought home, so I’ve been taking it easy and not getting much done. I did manage to get a few more buttons sewn onto a little sweater my mom got at a thrift store.

This sweater has a rather eclectic mix of motifs (rocket ship, dinosaur, candy cane, reindeer, clown, heart, etc.) so I think the new strawberry buttons will blend right in.

Mending

Erik is really really hard on his clothes for work, but we try really hard to not replace them until they’re beyond all hope of repair. But even when they get to that point, I cut them up and use them for something else (check out this lunch bag I made last year). I do my best to spot damage before it spreads, because before I know it a tiny loose thread becomes a missing button, or a tiny hole gets caught on something and becomes a major tear.

This is one of his undershirts, and the stitching at the back of the neck has popped in several places. It doesn’t show when he’s wearing his uniform, but even so, I know it’s just a matter of time before a loose thread catches on something, and whoops! There goes the neck band.

I’m using the number 3 stitch function on my machine, called a lightning stitch (also called a stretch stitch). If you’re sewing machine doesn’t have presets, just set it for a very narrow, short zig-zag stitch for a similar effect.

I did match the thread on the outside, but I’m using up some more odd-colored bobbin thread on the inside of the neck.

This is one of Erik’s sweatshirts. The coverstitching at the hem is coming loose across the back. Even though it looks like only one row is affected, the lower row is not really attached any more, either.

See? The left side is all fuzzy where the missing stitches are, and the right side is still smooth and tight where both rows of stitches are still in tact. I went ahead and removed the “fuzzy” stitches, since I know they’ll just fall out eventually anyway.

A few drops of Fray Check on each end of the stitches (do the inside, too!) will keep them from unraveling any more.

Mending