[ID: a hand holding up the cut through, light blue shoulder strap of a pink school backpack]
Somebody cut the shoulder strap of my daughter's school backpack and I did not want to buy another one after just a year and a bit. These things are expensive af o-O
So, inspired by the things I learned about (visible) mending on@wastelesscrafts, I went on a mending journing, without a clue xD
This is gonna be long with process pictures, so I put it under a cut.
Also, this is my first time writing picture IDs, and I'm not sure if I did it correctly 🙈
First step was to finally get out the sewing machine I got for my birthday 2 years ago. This was totally Terra Incognita for me. But with the moral and technical remote support from @nichtsneu 💙 I managed to thread it properly and got it up and running. Did a little testrun on some ripped pants and then went all in.
And it was aweful 😂😂😂
I couldn't detach the strap from the backpack so i couldn't turn it properly and ugh what a mess.
But! I did succeed.
[ID: Frontview of overlapping parts of above mentioned shoulder strap sewn together haphazardly with dark blue thread]
Sort off.
[ID: Backview of the mended shoulder strap. It looks even more chaotic with several loops of dangling yarn.]
I mean, it's not pretty, but it'll hold a while, I'm sure 💪
Then crochet brain kicked in and said "Waitaminnit, we can just hide that. I'm thinkin' flowers here!"
Alright, alright, so a flower I crocheted while waiting for my doctor's appointment, because I knew I would wait a long time, so I always bring something to do.
Then instead of sewing the flower right on, I made a sort of "bed" for it. Wrapped my yarn around the strap, but then thought that this would never stay in place. So THEN, I decided to weave a bit because why not. First with a pointy needle but that didn't work so well of course. Then I used a blunt needle to make a tunnel for the pointy needle, and then I found it worked best if I used the eye of the non-pointy needle as "carriage" for the pointy needle.
[ID: The mended shoulder strap, but the thread chaos is now hidden by yellow yarn that's been woven on the front. Also shown is the pointy needle with its point in the eye of the blunt needle. The blunt needle is holding up the last four threads where the pointy needle needs to go through to complete the weaving. ]
And in the end I figured I could have made the long strings first (the warps? is that what they're called in weaver lingo?)
Well anyway, this is the end result and while the back is still not very pretty, it's better than the thread chaos it had before.
[ID: The backview of the mended shoulder strap showing yellow yarn wrapped around the mending area and a yellow crochet flower behind. Stitches in the same yellow yarn hold the crochet flower in place.]
And the front is hella cute, no?
[ID: The light blue shoulder strap of a pink backpack is held up by a hand to show off the front of the mending area where only a yellow crochet flower with 5 petals can be seen now.]
And daughter likes it and now wants a flower on the other shoulder strap as well xD
Phew! So that was a journey and I'm glad I went on it because I learned a lot and saved some money 😄
Thank you @wastelesscrafts for providing resources and mending inspiration, and Thank you @nichtsneu for talking me through the sewing machine setup and general usage 💕💕💕
