June:
Convertible Chaise Lounge
This is a pretty cool piece of furniture, a sofa by day and a full-sized bed by night. In the second picture you can see that the front 1/2 has dropped down on the left side. This was due to the hinge being ripped out of the wood. To repaired it I took off the mattress tic king fabric, used a wood epoxy to repair the wood and reinstalled the hinges. This did the trick! It evened it right out and even made it easier to open and close. Then I sold it for $300 (my original purchase price was $200).
July & August:
Both of these months were a complete bust when it comes to mending.
September:
Lanyard
Some time ago I purchased a beaded lanyard off of Amazon with quick break away magnetic closures (required for my job). I wore the lanyard once or twice before it “broke”. Technically the wire hadn’t been crimped tightly enough and had just pulled out. I promptly forgot all about the beaded lanyard after purchasing one made from webbing. The beaded lanyards resemble a necklace, thus adding to, instead of taking away from an outfit. Hmmm… I just looked it up, I purchased the beaded lanyard on Nov. 2, 2021. This means it sat around nearly 2 years waiting for a 5-minute repair. My procrastination depresses me a little bit. 5 minutes and I could have saved myself the cost of the other lanyard. Well, at least it is repaired now.
Aerostitch Zippers
This repair was one zipper on each Aerostitch motorcyle suit.
Mike’s stitch had a zipper stuck halfway up (or halfway down) with both sides of the zipper open. That was just not right. It looked just fine after the quick repair. The zipper pull on my stitch had fed unevenly and gotten stuck. I had a heck of a time getting it off. The price of the repairs were from the company’s site.
Hem suit pants
These suit pants were a little short for me. After wearing them multiple times in this short fashion, I decided it was way past time to lengthen the hem. It was easy enough to remove the previous hand stitching and lining tacks. I unfolded the previous hem and blind stitched the new hem length. Choosing not to lengthen the lining, I did recreate the tacks from the lining to the hem. As a result, the tacks keep the lining from turning inside out when taking the pants off. It would have cost me $20 minimum to have sent the pants out to be re-hemmed.
Worn out hole repair in 2 pair of DW’s pants
These pants would have been tossed out and needed to be replaced if I hadn’t repaired them. Cost of replacing Levi’s 501 jeans, $47.70. Cost of replacing Carhartt pants, $59.99
Zipper repair in DW’s shorts
This pair of shorts had the zipper pull completely remove itself from one whole side of the zipper. I could have removed the whole zipper and replace it. Or I could repair it by removing the lower stop, slide the pull off and carefully feed the pull back onto both sides of the zipper. I chose the second option for a couple of reasons. First, I do not enjoy completely replacing zippers. Second, I didn’t want to have to purchase a new zipper if I didn’t have to. By taking a few minutes to carefully remove the stop and reuse it, I saved more time, gas, and money associated with all that business. According to one site, if I would have paid to have the zipper completely replaced it would have cost me $15.00
Holes in antique petticoat/skirt
Back in April of this year I stopped by this antique store in The Dalles. Besides the items mentioned in the last post, I also purchased this pretty Petticoat/skirt. Because of all the holes, tears and popped seams, I only paid $8 and change. I’m not sure if it was a petticoat or a skirt for a lingerie dress. What I do know is that it is quite lovely. From the ripped placket and moth holes to the holes in the place and undone pin tucks. I took my time and repaired each. I found a similar petticoat on ebay (similar amount of pintucks and insertion lace) that cost $299.00 + $17.99 shipping and handling.
- Convertible Chaise Lounge – Made $100.00 profit
- 5-minute repair to beaded lanyard – $13.99
- Fixing Mike’s Aerostitch zipper, savings of – $150.00
- Fixing my Aerostitch zipper myself – $60.00
- Re-hemming my suit pants myself – $20.00
- Repair instead of replacing Levi’s 501 jeans – $47.70
- Repair instead of replacing Carhatt pants – $59.99
- Repair instead of replace zipper in shorts – $15.00
- Antique Edwardian Petticoat – Replacement cost of $316.99 – initial cost of about $9.00 equals $307.99
- Total = $774.67
