Mending Shorts: A Treadle Machine Journey

I haven’t done any mending or darning in awhile.  My mending pile is a testimony to that statement.

A forgotten promise

Still, I had a piece of mending that MUST be done before today.  A few weeks ago (I think 3) I agreed to mend some shorts for a co-worker.  This was during the Wedding dress/Wedding veil time period.  Last week co-worker NM asked after his shorts.  I am ashamed to admit that they had gotten set aside and forgotten.  Making it a point to move them up on my mental “to-do” list. I committed to having them completed by Monday (today).  Enter the weekend…

Life happens

I had a fairly busy weekend!  Mostly, I spent time with the grandsons. They are busy guys and don’t leave much downtime for little things like mending.  I had other things to do too. This led to me getting home Sunday night at 9:30 pm. There was still mending to do.  I gathered up the things that I needed: shorts, sewing machine, power cord, thread, interfacing, and foot pedal… WAIT!  WHERE IS MY FOOT PEDAL?  I can’t make the machine sew without my foot pedal!  I live in a 600 sq.ft. apartment.  How hard can it be to locate one sewing machine’s foot pedal?  As it turns out, pretty much impossible.  At least it was last night.  On to plan B.

Successful Results

Texted friend Daisy, to let her know I was not going to make our walking at 0530 the next morning.  I took the thread off the electric sewing machine and put it on my treadle machine.  I loaded another bobbin with matching thread (the machines do not have compatible bobbins) and I began sewing.  This fix was kind of like (very loosely speaking) a darning repair.  The fabric had stress wear so I ironed a small piece of interfacing on the inside of the shorts.  I sewed a short line of stitches crossing over the tear. I stopped and turned the sewing around. Then I sewed back the same distance at a slight angle. This was done to be near the last line of stitches but not directly atop of them.  On the treadle machine this…took…f o r e v e r.

Final Musings

I don’t know if you have ever sewn using a treadle machine. I enjoy using one immensely. The sound and movement of the treadle is soothing to me. Yet, when all I have to do is sew about 5-7 stitches, it is frustrating. I have to stop, turn the fabric, and then sew another 5-7 stitches. One just can’t start treadling. I have to use my hand on the wheel to start the machine sewing in the foreword direction. If it starts sewing backwards, the thread gets all tangled up underneath. I have to stop and fix it before starting over. About the time that I had the machine stitching in the correct direction, it was time to stop and turn. It took much longer than I had anticipated to do the repair. I was much pleased with how the repair turned out. As was NM! 😀

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