#fix your clothes

[improbable-implosions]

This one blew by pretty speedily, thankfully! Y'see, it's been getting steadily hotter (as it does when summer sneaks up on me each year), and so I needed these shorts fixed so I could quit overheating in full length jeans.

Of course, the real trouble here is that this is a tear in need of repair that cropped up after I'd done all that nice prep work hemming patches by machine, (see also, this post) so I had to fold and pin these hems by hand (with a good bit of fuss to get them to sit nice on the fabric itself), but thankfully it managed to get set Just So, covering the edge of the previous patch quite handily.

I like to be careful with the placement of my edge stitches even when they're not holding down a hem, because even though you're supposed to remove the tack stitches holding the patch on after getting the sashiko pattern in, I like the framing effect they provide. Just bonus points that they're playing double duty here, if you ask me!

Ignoring the slightly wibbly framing stitches at the corners there, we come to the step I've previously ignored! Not this time, now I've learned my lesson, albeit begrudgingly, that leaving out the whip stitching around the hole you're mending just leads to the hole stubbornly continuing to expand. Seeing as I'm a bit sick of patching this same set of four holes, in they go! Isn't that yellow contrast nice?

I hadn't really decided on a pattern quite yet here, but I did know I didn't particularly want to gamble on my needle pulling through adhesive nicely this time, after the last mend took forever from overeager self-adhesive patterns, so on goes the quarter inch grid! Admittedly, I do stitch a good bit better with those dissoluble backings, especially when it comes to intentional variation of stitch length, but the increase in speed really was unparalleled here.

Here comes my mistake to let the faeries out, as it were! (Each project gets one, and I don't get to pick when) Originally I wanted to continue that zig-zag pattern on the existing patch, but I miscounted the offset on these horizontal stitches, and had to pivot, as we can see with the next batch here.

Admittedly, the squares pattern I landed on really emphasized the way the ruler didn't quite hold the fabric still when I was drawing those lines (making the grid I was stitching from a bit wobbly), but even then, I really enjoy the way the squares came together nonetheless, and it seems like its holding up particularly well! Maybe those whip stitches are worth it, huh?

[kieraoonadiy]

Crafting Stream - mending clothing - possibly mending socks

Just having a chill time, mending some stuff. Patches, some visible mending techniques, and possibly adding a patch to my patch jacket***My Ko-Fi page if yo...

I hosted a livestream earlier today, to do some mending of some shorts and a tee shirt.  To see how mending goes in real time, and just to listen to some chill tunes, please follow the link to my YouTube channel

[microcosmpub]

Book Review – Fix Your Clothes

There is an independent publishing company, Microcosm Publishing, based in Portland, Oregon. This is a publishing company with an edge – have a look at their website and you’ll see what I mean. The…

“Describing the craft of mending simply, with straightforward illustrations, this tiny text is all you need to learn how to mend your own clothing. You can read this book in an afternoon, so that you know how it’s organized for future reference, or you can keep it with your sewing basket and pick it up when you need it. After reading this book, I saw myself in my mind’s eye mindfully repairing my clothing from a beautiful sewing basket or pouch in a corner of my living room.”

Review of Raliegh Briggs’ handy book Fix Your Clothes.

[improbable-implosions]

Another multi-parter for both thighs across the main seam of a pair of jeans! This is a VERY common canvas for sashiko 'round this household, seeing as both Razz and I have pretty thorough thighs. Luckily, having learned my lesson (somewhat) from the giant patches in the same area I did previously, I split this into two designs, even if the patch fabric itself was one piece. Both designs are from wrenbirdart's stick and stitch collections, barring that little section on the first one I pencilled myself, as the main pattern was slightly too small.

First up we've got this genuinely delightful set of little asterisks, formed out of vertical, horizontal, and two diagonal sets of stitches. The first set of stitches immediately make clear that I really should be more careful about my math when I'm trying to duplicate the wrenbirdarts patterns onto my own dissolvable backing. Sure, that set all the way on the right is off by increasing increments of a quarter inch with each set, but I actually don't mind that look too badly in the end. The general look of all the eight-pointed overlapping crosses works super well, and I may take some inspiration from the mildly-fumbled pattern on that hand-pencilled section to make an alternating pattern of standard crosses and the asterisks, in the future.

Secondly, there's this pine forest design! I really had a love hate relationship with this one, as the pattern itself is SUPER pretty, I mean, look at that final picture! It's so beautiful! The major downside, though, is that it doesn't lend a lot of opportunities to load up straight stitches in a row. As you can kinda see in the progress shots, you do that central "coordinate grid" of a given pine top, then go quarter by quarter, filling in the other stitches, one by one, individually. Which, to me, is SUPER boring, I much prefer to load up a bunch of straight stitches in a row, then pull them all through, smoothing the fabric afterwards. So, partially because I wanted to get it done and over with as fast as possible, and partially because my jean shorts were in DIRE need of fast repairs before I could wear them in the (then incoming) summer heat, I somewhat sped my way through the pattern, in hopes that I can later come back to this pattern, and develop a more-loadable version that still keeps the pine-like beauty of the finished piece here.

[improbable-implosions]

This one's kinda funny, I went into affixing that patch SO sure that the design of that sword of mine, Arma, would be plenty for that patch, but the longer I stared at it doing other mends for these pants, the longer I felt it needed _something_ else, you know?

First up, we've got to stitch on the patch itself! I did some nice even straight stitches, because initially, I was planning on a little area of sashiko mending.

But, in looking at the size of the chunk of dissolvable backing I had cut, there wasn't really any patterns immediately springing to mind that'd work at a scale that small, or, so I thought after seeing how that basketweave pattern came together on an earlier piece. For context, the whole patch is roughly the size of the palm of my hand, at 3.5 inches square.

So, instead, I decided to try something a bit more complex to render than I'd really tried out before, this art of Arma! (Despite the sword's design being my work, the art in question is by @razzmatazic, who I did ask if I tried to trace, and she had no problems!) And so trace I did, tracing the outlines of the major features of the piece, namely, the outer lines, and the shapes of the gemstones.

Unfortunately, in my haste (and, admittedly, my focus, since this was much higher detail than I normally tackle around here), I didn't grab any in-progress shots of this. Still, I actually really enjoy how this came out looking, even if it doesn't perfectly evoke the design or detail of the original piece, it certainly emulates the look of Arma well enough I recognize it, and very visibly reads Cool Sword, y'know?

Next up were a few colorful rims around the edges of the front pockets! They were fraying pretty significantly, so not only does this add a fun splash of color, but it keeps me from picking the edges of these seams apart while I'm not thinking about my hands. Initially, I was going to pick a different set of colors than that turquoise and purple, based on a fun fact about my hometown, but that color scheme was just calling out to me! I decided to lean into the somewhat royal vibes and went for a different, lighter purple, with two little bits of yellow thread, which, fun fact, I actually dyed with some yellow flowers I foraged back in the boston area!

As for these two little spot-mends, they were really more an exercise in frustration. Really, I'm mostly miffed the thread broke on the original patch in the one place the hole kept trying to expand through, but hopefully that little bit of randa stitching (which looks MUCH more like randa stitching should than my previous efforts, namely on my wallet and that previous pair of pants that we detailed, the ones with the segaihana sashiko) alongside some additional reinforcement along the edge of that original yellow patch, made from some thread I scavenged from a fraying bit of denim, should keep this particular pair of shorts from getting any more fixes right on the edge of the patch that has misbehaved TWICE now!

Last but not least, while I was wrangling those pocket rims and the spot mends, I really just had the feeling that Arma would look kinda... lonely, I suppose? Centered in the framing straight stitches like that, so I improvised a little open book next to her! (She's not a sword-girl, promise, it's she/her like you'd she/her a boat) There's actually some really nice dimensionality to the book, too, with some looser stitches to emulate ruffle-able pages, and those two knots along the spine make for a pleasant, crinkled texture to the cover lines! Can you tell I'm pleased with myself for getting that just so, without any guides?

All that said, hopefully that's all the mends my poor poor jean shorts need, I swear, just as I get one set fixed, the other winds up with another hole! Don't get me wrong, I'm starting to enjoy the whole almost boro-like vibe they're developing, with all these overlapping mends, but I'd like them to develop it slower, thanks! (And yes, I do plan to wear these at LEAST until they look like I've quilted them back together, they're comfy!)

[improbable-implosions]

This particular mend turned out to be MUCH more complex, involved, and fussy than I really ever expected it to be at the outset. That said, after all the work where I focused on taking my time to get things just so, I found out that I'm quite capable of handling larger projects like this!

First up, here, before starting, my partner Razz and I sat down, and went through our clothes with a careful eye. More and more of her pants in particular were in need of little fixes here and there, and I figured rather than going about it all piecemeal and in no particular order, not accomplishing the fixing of clothes she needs, we put them together into an order of "most wanted fixes" to "least pressing fixes".

Once I had all that info, I settled in with a measuring tape, and got to identifying all the mends that needed to happen. For every piece that was more than, say, a few inches of rip, or of a shape that standard embroidery wouldn't cut it for a fix, I cut out a piece of patch fabric, with the intention of making use of these patches by doing sashiko mends.

Step 1: pin the hem of the patch down, initially hoping to run it through the sewing machine to have a nice hem! Sure, it was kinda fussy doing the quarter inch hems, since I hadn't really done this before, but it's not _too_ bad in hindsight!

Step 2: Realize that the sewing machine foot you have on hand got mixed up with a family member's in a move, and begrudgingly realize you have to re-pin the hemmed patch directly to the jeans being mended. Grumble, grumble! Oh well, at least this light blue thread is going to be really cute on the jeans, so there's that.

Step 3: stitch down the patch to the fabric, blissfully unaware that this big of a patch which interacts with the main seams four times like this is going to be a huge pain later!

Step 4: with some clever use of tape and bumping the laptop brightness, make a tracing of the segaihana pattern onto the dissolvable backing. (I did realize later, mind you, that I could have just used something small and circular to draw this manually, but the tracing worked out just fine, so we take those!)

Step 5: get stitching, following the pattern on the backing! I get about this far before two things happen: first off, the sewing machine foot returned from family-home purgatory, and secondly, I realize that pushing this needle over and over with my bare hands is REALLY wearing out not only the muscles in my hands, but also thoroughly frustrating my skin, in the process.

So, as a little test of the sewing machine, I made this little palm thimble! the loop of thread on the left there loops around my middle finger, and then the denim takes the brunt of pushing the needle, instead of my poor fingies!

So, over the course of a few days, with a LOT of help from the palm thimble (some pieces even getting done on stream, go check out the vods: https://youtu.be/oeytUetT2Z0 and https://youtu.be/u6k-Yr4Vjn0) we get the first (major) panel done! Might not be super visible in these shots, but there is in fact a second piece to be stitched here!

So, after yet more tracing (which took a good bit more fuss, since I had to align it with the previous panel!) we find ourselves at step 6: do the second batch of stitching! Overall, I actually really enjoyed the way this piece came together, the segaihana pattern is super pretty to look at. Plus, I learned a LOT in doing this one, the big thing being, if you're going to have trouble on both sides of a thigh of a pair of jeans, even if the damage is spread evenly on either side, break the patches up along the main seam. Sewing through the many layers of that denim is particularly taxing, especially when I'm struggling to nail the positioning of the stitches to carry on a nice pattern!

[improbable-implosions]

Remember how I said the puncetto valsesiano didn't quite hit the spot just right for the mends I needed? Here's how I fixed it!

First up, we throw some stitches down to apply the patch fabric! I tend to keep my edge stitching, as I kinda enjoy the framing effect it applies to patterns, so I'm a bit more careful about the spacing of the straight stitches I use. Usually, I just see people kinda toss some tack stitches down they remove, and honestly, there's value to that too, make it so there's _just_ the pattern, y'know?

First up, over the puncetto, is the horizontal stitching. I'm using a pattern from wrenbirdarts, and It's intended that you do some weaving after the end of this pattern, but I wound up liking the look of it with just the stitching.

The pattern is really coming together with the vertical stitching here! That, and it's really coming across how well stitching through the puncetto is working out! If that didn't use so much thread for so little space, I might keep this particular order of techniques around! (Perhaps I'll have to use it for those ceylon stitched patches, eventually?)

Last but not least for the puncetto area, we've got the two diagonal sets of stitches! You're meant to weave between the small crosses in the "offset" area between the crosses with diagonals, but honestly, I looked at the way that finished piece looked, and didn't care for it. There's another woven pattern I've seen around that makes a sort of hexagon grid that I might take a shot at on another piece, though!

Next up, for the opposite side of the seam from the puncetto, I decided I wanted to make my own pattern based on a stitched example online! The idea of this is meant to evoke woven reeds in a basket, but I also thought it gave a sort of tetris-esque pattern. With some simple math (and a lot of help from a ruler!) I put down these lines Just So on the dissolvable backing.

Horizontal and vertical sets of stitches later, we've got a completed basketweave sashiko! This wound up being a really entertaining pattern to do, especially at this relatively small scale, because I could breeze through each line in, practically, one pass each!

Slightly unfortunately, the pattern doesn't really read at this small of a scale, so maybe I need to keep the basketweave pattern to be used on larger patches, instead. It's a real shame, because it's such a fun pattern conceptually! Oh well, guess I enjoyed the process more than the finished product this time :)

Last but not least, busted out the speed loom to do a little darn to cover a hole that expanded past its patch, ever so rudely (i actually misplaced the patch, like with the pride flag mends) (doesn't make the hole any less rude though) (especially since I didn't whip stitch the hole to hold still so I had to add this block of ceylon stitching after two or three wears to block the still expanding hole from further friction)

[improbable-implosions]

An actually traditional patch for once, I threw this one together to cover a hole that was _just barely_ too big to embroider on the fly. Wanted to get some small mends out of the way while a load of laundry was spinning, you see!

First up, we've got the hem on the patch itself. That fabric was pretty stretchy, and the piece was pretty small, so it was a much fiddlier process than you'd expect, especially doing it all by hand!

Trundling on, however, we find that plenty of whip stitches will make that hole we're patching hold still! I actually originally dyed this sashiko thread yellow for a completely different project, but I've wound up using it more often for other thisn'thats, not having gotten to that project quite yet. (Maybe we'll see it sometime soon?)

Last but not least, we attach the patch fabric! Well, that, and we add some additional yellow stitching along some of the looser bits of the seams of the shirt. This shirt in particular actually has been kicking around for a long, long while, at least from the perspective of the average t-shirt, as my mom grabbed it in one of her travels to California back in 2002-ish! Most especially with that in mind, I'm really glad to have kept this shirt in my repertoire, and out of the landfill.