Mending Monday - running shorts * On Pens & Needles

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The panel of “breathable” fabric had worn right through. Other than that, these running shorts were in good repair. The first step was to purchase a replacement fabric. I didn’t go for anything “breathable”, as per DW’s request. I picked up a knit fabric that was a little more sturdy, a very fine 1×1 ribbed fabric. The second step was to remove the old panel. I carefully examine how the shorts had been constructed. I wanted to make sure that the repair wasn’t noticeable. The seems were all doubled.

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Using this panel as a pattern, I cut out a new piece of fabric remembering to extend the length to accommodate the turned up hem.

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A picture of the interior of the repaired shorts.

img_20191201_133752302 — Pixie wanted me to tell you that she worked really hard on the repairing of her daddy’s shorts.

Making sure to get my name on Santa’s “nice” list, I agreed to alter his new suit. A coworker of mine is a real-beard Santa at Christmas time. This year he got two new suits, but they needed a few changes.

I forgot to get a before or after photo of the hat. The hat was way too big for Santa. When he went to put it on, it easily fell over his eyes down to the bridge of his nose. Also, the pompom was on a long string and it hung way down and away from the hat. He asked for that to be corrected by attaching the pompom directly to the hat. To fix the pompom by removing a couple of stitches and pulling the long string up into the point of the hat. Then I seamed forward and back a couple of times to hold it in place.

To reduce the size of the hat, which was completely lined, I needed to remove the white fluff from the bottom. I did not cut the extra fabric away, just added a seam to the new measurement. I also added another seam to the white fluff so it would fit the new tighter hat.

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To reattach the fluff to the hat, I sewed through all 3 layers. This left the messy raw edge. Hand sewn bias tape to tidy this up.

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img_20191129_130754494 — Santa’s vest – Before

The vest needed to be longer, 2-1/2″ longer. It was time for mathing… 2.5″ in the front, 2.5″ in the back, plus seam allowances on both sides. Mathing finished, I was ready to begin opening the shoulder seams. The vest, like the hat, was fully lined. The repair needed to be tidy with hidden raw edges. Santa had provided a cheerful green holiday fabric for this purpose. For each side a tube of green fabric was sewn and ironed flat. In attaching this to the vest, I realized the front and back shoulders were not the same width. :-/ Remeasured the shoulders, took apart the green tubes, marked the fabric to match the correct size, and sewed them back up.

Because the lining fabric was super slippery, I thoroughly pinned the fabric sleeves to the vest. I did this so that the seem allowances were turned in.