Mend It Monday: shirt cuffs

Not everyone who reads this blog is in my part of the country (or even in my country!) so I thought I'd share what we woke up to today:

The actual air temperature highs are in the negatives. These are the days when I'm very grateful to be a stay-at-home mom. AB and I are armed with new movies, plenty of Christmas toys, and I've got lots of sewing to do during nap time!

My husband (who did go to work today, brrrr!) has been online shopping a lot for clothes, and he sent me a bunch of choices for him for Christmas gifts. I ended up buying him this white button-up (button-down?) shirt from the Gap and he loves it!

I mean really, what won't this shirt go with? He's worn it under sweaters, on its own, all kinds of ways. It fits him well (unusual for RTW) but he did request one simple alteration: adding another button on the cuff.

It was a little loose for his liking. I tell ya what, it was awesome to be working in my sewing room, and have him come in to ask if I could fix his shirt. It felt like I had a little sewing shop and he was a customer. I told him I'd send him a bill.

We debated simply moving the current buttons, but instead decided to look through my button stash and add a second one instead. I guess in case his wrists grow?

You can see my very slight chalk mark where the second button was to go. To determine the right placement, he put the shirt on and I measured with my seam gauge. I think it took longer to look for suitable buttons than it did to sew them on!

I loved being able to customize this RTW shirt for him. Isn't it nice to put your skills to a practical purpose?

Mend it Monday: Rowing Machine Straps

Well, I learned the limits of my sewing machine. That's useful information, right? And I managed to do it without breaking anything.

We have a rowing machine that my husband uses when he works out. I'm not sure where it originally came from, but I think everyone in my extended family has possessed this machine at one point. It might be older than I am. Anyway, there are two sets of straps where you set your feet, and the Velcro on these straps was looking pretty bad.

Luckily, the straps were attached via bolts and could be removed. I got out my trusty seam ripper and went to work.

I'll be honest, this was kind of gross. There was dust and dirt and rust and who knows what else. Let's just say I washed my hands the second I was done. The thread broke fairly easily so I could tell it was pretty old. 

I went to Jo-Ann's and found some by-the-yard heavy-duty Velcro. It was the exact width I needed. It actually has a sticky backing once you peel off the plastic. I stuck it on and then attempted to sew it to the straps.

I used a topstitching needle, heavy duty thread, and a long straight stitch. I think I sewed about 2/3 of one strap (there are four total) before my needle refused to go on. The machine jammed. I sewed for a while turning the wheel by hand, but I literally saw the needle bend right before my eyes.

My husband tried the straps anyway (since they were stuck on with the adhesive backing) but it didn't work out. My next step is to take these to an alterations shop to see if they have a heavy-duty machine they can use.

Have you ever tried sewing something that made your machine say "ahhhhh hellllll no!"?

Mend It Monday: altering a too-big shirt

Have you ever bought clothing that didn't fit, just because it was on sale or the print was really cute? That's my whole life. The worst part is, I didn't even notice I was doing it. Then I met my husband and he bluntly told me that I wasn't a size medium or large and to stop buying baggy clothes.

I'd like to say I bought this shirt before he gave me that advice...but I didn't. In my defense, it was purchased at the end of my pregnancy, and it was intended to be a pretty, blousy transition piece for those post-baby, "ewwww whose body is this? Hurry and cover it up" days. Which it was. There's a lovely ruffle and ribbon along the neckline, which helped me feel feminine when I was covered in spit-up. But those days are behind me, and it was time to make this shirt into something I can actually wear.

The biggest issue is the neckline. It's too wide, and it makes the whole shirt look too big. The sleeves drop off my shoulders it's so wide. No good. The sleeves are raglan-style, so I decided it shouldn't be too hard to take in the shirt at these seams.

Essentially, I sewed a dart at all four sleeve/bodice seams. I folded the fabric right-sides together and marked the dart. The size of the dart was somewhat arbitrary (1/2" wide at the top and 2" down), I just did what looked right. 

The important part was to make sure the ribbon on the outside of the shirt matched up after the dart was sewn.

Ten or fifteen minutes later, and the shirt was fixed! The front neckline was raised and the shoulders are more narrow. The sleeves no longer fall off my shoulders. 

Have you been mending/altering lately? I think I'm about to tackle some of my husband's alterations soon.

Mend It Monday: Fixing a Sock

Happy Monday! Okay, Mondays aren't happy, I get it. But I'm happy, because my husband is home safe and sound from Europe, and my doggy is on the mend, and it's back to business as usual around here. Which means, mending!

How many socks do YOU have with holes? I have a ton.

This weekend, I decided to try mending one. I have so many scraps of knit fabric, I figured why not try?

I chose a French terry scrap, because it had a similar heft as the sock. I cut a small piece (making sure the stretch went in the same direction as the sock) and then placed it inside the sock, with the terry side facing out. Moving the rest of the fabric out of the way, I used my zig-zag stitch to secure the two together around the hole (you could also sew by hand if the hole is too awkward to reach by machine).

Patch, outside of sock.

Patch, inside of sock.

Then I trimmed close to the stitches and removed the excess from the scrap. Just to be safe, I went around it one more time, around the edges of the scrap itself.

Is it super pretty? No. But it's just a sock. And now it has new life!

Have you ever mended a sock? I'm tempted to go through my hole whole drawer and fix all my socks, now that I know how easy it is!

Mend It Monday: Dress Hem

Have you ever had to mend one of your own me-made creations? Bummer. Remember my first maxi dress?

It was super long, so when I hemmed it I had a lot of extra fabric to trim. I seem to recall talking and gesturing and not paying attention to what I was doing...and snip. A hole in the bottom of the skirt. Nothing like "finishing" a garment and immediately ruining it.

Repaired hole, right side.

It took me a few weeks to get around to it, but this was an easy repair. Not that pretty, but easy. This particular knit is very lightweight (sheer, if you want to know the truth) and it did ravel a bit. To prevent the hole from getting worse, I cut a small scrap and laid it over the hole's wrong side. Because this is a striped fabric, I carefully positioned the scrap so that the stripes would match.

Repaired hole, wrong side.

Using a coordinating thread, and working with the right side up, I zig-zagged around the edges of the hole to secure the dress to the scrap, then trimmed off any excess. Since this repair is in the hem of the garment (which is typically on the floor) it's more of a structural fix than a cosmetic one. I didn't want to step on the hem and hear a pleasant riiiiiiiiiip. So far so good!

Have you been doing any repairs lately? Time to pull out those winter clothes and check for damage!

Mend It Monday: Leather Belt

I'll never get used to people calling me "ma'am". It happened a few times this weekend and it just about breaks my heart every time. I'd rather be a "miss" forever. I heard someone say once that you're always 20 in your head, and that's probably true. But thank goodness my closet isn't the same as 20 year-old me anymore! I dressed so lame when I was in college. What a waste.

For example, I never wore belts like this wonderful leather one that I adore:

I LOVE this belt. Especially since I paid around $5 for it at a consignment store at the beginning of the summer. I've worn it a lot, and the little triangle-shaped "cap" on the end was starting to come loose from the braided strands.

Sorry I don't have any in-progress photos, I thought I might need to wear the belt and hurried through the repair! 

What worked for me was to gently pull out all the strands from the cap, then to sew a straight stitch across them. I cut off the excess, wiggled the end back into the cap, and then zig-zagged over the edge.

This repair was much less painless than I anticipated. I was afraid I might have to dig out some Elmer's glue, since I've seen glue used with leather a lot. I did have an old, needs-to-be-changed needle on my machine, so I wasn't afraid of dulling it further with the leather (or faux leather, whatever this belt is). 

We were pretty busy over the weekend, so this was all the sewing I did. How about you?

Mend It Monday: pleated skirt

I don't know about the rest of the country, but we're in a little bit of a cold snap here in Indiana! Yes, 70 degrees is cold (to me). I've started thinking a bit about my fall wardrobe, and I remembered I had this army-green corduroy skirt that will go great with tights in the fall.

Unfortunately, it had a few holes in it. Even more unfortunately, the holes were more like rips, right along the fold lines for the pleats.

I also didn't have any thread that matched. I decided to embrace a distressed look, and went with brown thread for my mending. If you can't completely hide a repair, you might as well make it seem purposeful!

This repair only took about 10 minutes, and now I have a good transitional skirt when it gets cooler for realz. 

Are you thinking of fall sewing yet?

Mend It Monday: cami straps

Duuuuuuude. It finally happened to me. For a year, I've been reading sewing blogs and I've seen beautiful clothing and bloggers who say "I don't know what this gorgeous amazing fabric is...I got it from a garage sale for a nickel." Last summer I had a newborn and didn't think that toting her to garage sales was a great idea. I've been patiently impatiently stalking Craigslist garage sale ads and striking out left and right. But Friday, I hit the motherload! The historical society for my county was having an enormous rummage sale. I showed up an hour after they opened and they already had police there directing parking. No joke. And then on my way out some guy tried to give me two free coffeemakers. Thanks no thanks...I didn't tell him I already HAVE two coffeemakers...and an espresso machine...and a french press. If we're ever in a zombie apocalypse we've at least got coffee covered.

I didn't even get to see everything at the sale because it was so crowded, but it was fun to see their vintage linens, old sewing machines, and even some kind of knitting machine. I quit shopping when my arms were full.

I got all these trims for $2.50. Most of them are old (I won't say "vintage" because who the heck knows) and just plain pretty. Not to mention how fun the packaging is:

I also got a bunch of fabric for around $4 (I haven't totaled it yet but one piece was at least 10 yards alone).

And rounding off my haul were some dainty embroidered pillowcases. It was hard to photograph them and show the detail so I'll save those for another day.

Of course I love buying fabric, but the trims are my favorite. I don't use trim enough, mostly because I never have it on hand, but it's something I want to incorporate into my sewing this year. It's come in handy already, because I used one of the elastics to fix a camisole.

I've almost worn this thing to death, but it still has some life in it. Or it would, if one of the straps wasn't broken.

It literally just stretched out until it gave out. Sad. I'm kind of hard on my clothes. Anyway, this was a quick fix with this cute pink elastic:

Yes, it had that sort of stiff "I'm old" elastic feel to it, but I was confident of its ability to hold up a tiny jersey camisole. And look what it's made of!

Rubber and rayon? Is that weird to anyone else? Anyway, I cut off the old straps, leaving behind the bit where they were sewn to the cami so I knew where to sew my elastic without having to mark or pin. (If you don't have your own stash of vintage trims you can nab some elastic from Amazon here).

I measured the non-broken strap and then cut two lengths of elastic that size, plus a bit extra in order to sew it onto the cami. With about five minutes worth of work, it was good as new! Okay, the straps were as good as new.

Since I sewed it right on, the stitches show on the right side. Ask me if I care. I'll give you two guesses but you'll only need one.

Bonus: elastic straps might be the best accidental idea I've ever had. Aside from the broken strap, I haven't been able to wear this cami since I had AB and have been nursing. No problems now!

So spill: what's your megaload garage/estate/rummage sale story? Or have you been gifted with someone else's stash? I love these stories so share! And did everyone have a good Father's Day? I can't resist one photo of AB, playing in some water at my grandparents' house:

Mend It Monday: torn shirt

I think this might be the sweet spot in the life of my style. When I was in college, I tried to dress young but not too slutty (if I had to TRY to dress young when I WAS young...then I guess I had problems!) When I got married, I thought "I'm somebody's wife now, time to be extra modest in my clothing". When I had a baby, I thought "I'm a mom but PUHLEASE I don't want to look like one". A year into mommyhood, with 30 breathing down my neck, I think I've come full circle. These days, I don't give a flying fig what anyone thinks about how I dress. I don't know if it's my age, or my ability to sew my own clothing, but it's freeing not to care. I'm a wife, I'm a mom, I don't have a job, who in the world would I be trying to impress? Nobody. I still have a good 10 years before AB will be embarrassed to be around me. Time to take advantage of this freedom!

(And yes, I do like dressing to impress my husband. If he compliments my outfit, it makes my day. But I have clothes I LOVE that he HATES, so I learned a long time ago not to live and die by his opinion. Doesn't mean I don't love him!)

By the way, make sure you vote in the poll for Friday posts! Look over there in the sidebar! ----->

All of that just to talk about this shirt for Mend It Monday. A zillion years ago, I bought a jersey blouse from Old Navy on a total whim. It was that time when loose, breezy clothing was coming into style, and everybody was wearing off the shoulder t-shirts ripped at the neckline. I barely wore it because I thought it was a touch too revealing. Now that I no longer live on a college campus with 15,000 drunk 20-something men (boys), it's not so bad! But sadly, it did get a tear in it.

And here's a photo showing the shirt on me. I have another shirt on under it so you can see the tear more clearly.

It's a strange bit of damage. It looks like someone took scissors and cut a line. Most of the repairs I make come from worn out clothing, but this literally came out of the washing machine with this tear in it. Maybe I washed a pair of scissors with it?

When confronting a mending project, you have lots of options. I considered the most simple one, stitching up the tear, but I thought it would look obvious, and not in a good way. Maybe if it had been a print and I could hide the sewing, but not on a white shirt. I decided to patch it with some scrap fabric.

I had a ton of scraps to choose from, but it was important to pick something of a similar weight. I also wanted  another knit fabric, since the shirt is made from knit jersey. This fabric is a waffle knit and it's from a shirt I bought at Goodwill. I love the fun print and I used part of the shirt already for a diaper for AB. I definitely want to use the rest for a dress for her at some point, or maybe some jammies.

I chose a part of the print I wanted for the patch and placed it over the tear to get an idea of size.

I centered the "ROCK" part directly over the tear. The rest is just there for stability at this point. Now, more decisions! Did I want to put the patch on top of the shirt, or underneath? I decided to sew it on top, because the tear wasn't big enough to actually see through. I could have cut it further, but I didn't want it to look too forced.

You could sew a patch on using your machine, or by hand. Back when I read Mend It Better (a great book!) it talked about using embroidery thread and stitches. I had some grey embroidery thread, so I used that. I made some quick X-shaped stitches all around the ROCK portion, checking to make sure I was going around the tear. Five minutes later, viola!

I trimmed around the part I wanted to keep, and since it's a knit, the edges won't fray.

I wasn't feeling very photogenic, sorry! It's not a perfect solution (it kind of looks like I'm wearing a button), but I'm fine with how it turned out. I like this shirt a lot now and didn't want to lose it over a stupid rip in the fabric. I may even try to copy it one of these days.

Any mending going on in your neck of the woods? Too bad I didn't have some of these flowers from Pick Your Plum, then I could have just tossed one of them on this shirt and been done with it!

Mend It Monday: Sewing on a Button

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! It's starting to be hot around here these days. I can't wait for some kiddie pool time with AB. There's also a free splash pad at a park nearby, I think we'll be spending lots of time there this summer. I guess I need to get on that swimsuit project I have planned for myself! Maybe I should practice by sewing one for AB, like the Coney Island Tankini from Peek-A-Boo Pattern Shop. I kinda like that design for me!

Today I have another quick mending project. A few weeks ago (okay...it was probably months ago) I lost a button on one of my favorite shirts.

It's a poly/spandex knit blouse from Target, and it's sooooo comfortable. I used to wear this to work when I felt like being a bum, but wanted to look like a cute young professional. The top button was the one that fell off:

I might have worn it without the button, but it's already a low-cut top, so I didn't want to push the issue. I was surprised that the button was even loose. The fabric is so stretchy that I usually pull it over my head, I never use the buttons! Anyhow, this is a quick fix and I feel silly for leaving it in the mending pile for so long.

The button is a shank button, not a regular flat button. These types are actually easier to sew back on than a "regular" button. I found some matching cotton thread in my stash and went to work.

For some reason I always end up using cotton thread for mending. Cotton thread isn't as strong as polyester thread (which is what I use in my sewing machine) but it's much softer. I like the softness when I sew by hand.

Finding the right spot to sew this back on was easy, because the old thread hole was still visible. The buttonholes are vertical, so I laid the button on the fabric with the shank vertical as well. A few quick stitches through the shank, into the fabric, and back, and it was done!

Quick and easy, and this shirt is saved!

As I'm writing this post, AB and I are watching Sesame Street, and they spent 10 minutes trying to get Oscar the Grouch to say "buttons". I felt like I was doing something wrong by typing it over and over again with that in the background!