There seams to be a never ending supply of mending to do. The cool thing about mending is that it can be pretty close to instant gratification. You take a broken item and repair it and it goes back into useful rotation.
Replace Zipper
The zipper in this dress looked like something had taken a big bite out of it! It was a complete replacement job. The biggest struggle on this project was finding a replacement zipper. Back in the old-days of my youth, there was more than one local fabric store to choose from. No matter which fabric store you went to, they all had a huge selection of notions, buttons, zippers, etc. to choose from. Things came in a rainbow of colors and sizes. Now-a-days, not so much. Locally, I can purchase fabrics from seven stores. Three of those stores are specifically quilting stores. Only one of the stores sells supplies for making clothes… like zippers. The supply of zippers on offer were skimpy to be sure. There was only one size of navy blue zipper, but it was too short. I went with a black zipper that was actually too long. Too long is OK but too short is not. This cute little lightweight summer dress was fully lined. I didn’t want to noodle-it-out on how to successfully machine sew in the replacement zipper. I sat down and hand sewed the zip in. First sewing it to the outer fabric and then sewing it to the lining. I think it turned out really well.
Alter Shorts
I have had these linen shorts for several seasons. They are super comfortable and easy to wear. My only problem with them is that when they are washed they need to be ironed. The turned up bottom edge is fiddly and a pain to re-do. So this time, after I re-ironed the shorts, I top-stitched the turned up edge in place. I am very pleased with myself and wondering why I didn’t do this years ago.
Lunchbag
I must have built up some bad-ass muscles while patting myself on my bag for completing all these mends, because I snapped the zip pull right off. At this point I had just finished packing my lunch for the day and I was in a hurry to leave for work on time. Isn’t this ALWAYS when things like this happen? Good thing I had surplus yellow ribbon in my stash. I am super pleased with this quick fix.
Future Mending plans
Yep, there is always more…
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