|
|
The things a sewer does can be somewhat mundane... |
Just over a year and a half prior to my becoming a "born again sewer," I
handed over a couple of hubby's shirts to my late market friend Colleen for
alterations. Given that they only needed to be shortened, I'm sure I could
have been up to the task had I put my mind to it.
Thank you for supporting my indie designer dream...
I've done some intriguing things with old fleece scarves in the past (check this post here), but even though I've had this red one for a long time, it has never received the upcycle treatment. Actually, the last thing that I considered doing with it, was to use the material to make mitts.
'Til next... 🇨🇦🍁
But at that time, I didn't consider myself to be a person who sewed.
(Which was odd in itself given my history of having been a sewer in my
younger days.) Fast forward fifteen years, and I now find myself doing
certain things "because I sew."
How about you? In between the times when you're actively making this or that, based on this tutorial or that pattern, do you take on mundane sewing tasks just because you happen to sew?
How about you? In between the times when you're actively making this or that, based on this tutorial or that pattern, do you take on mundane sewing tasks just because you happen to sew?
This sort of relates to the practice of hubby giving me projects like
his winch cover
and
boat tote. (And in fact, winch cover 3.0 is one of my upcoming posts. Since we no
longer have any of the smaller ones to take apart, this new one is made
from scratch.)
|
| Winch cover version two... |
Late last year, he showed me a pair of more or less okay jeans that had
developed an unusual vertical rip along the side, beside the back pocket.
It was a good four inches long and the exposed edges were quite frayed, so
I told him that any fix I could apply would not be invisible.
|
| Quick jeans repair... |
Fortunately, he was not picky about what it would end up looking like, so
I went in with a long strip of old denim, applied it to the inside with
some double-sided tape and zig-zagged stitched the whole thing from the
top. Not pretty, but I thought it would do the job of making the jeans
wearable again... until he brought them back with the same problem. I'm
thinking that the location and direction of the tear makes this a tough
fix, so the jeans have gone into our pile of "old denim." (An example of
one of those
failed projects, I guess.)
Further on the topic of things fraying, back in 2020, I made
a set of placemats
out of my Spoonflower Roast Duck and Veggie Noodle Soup fabric.
They've been in constant use on our dinner table ever since, laundered
regularly, and over the past five years, the edges have started to show
definite wear and tear.
So what's a sewer to do?
|
| Adding binding to my old placemats... |
Bind them, of course. I took one of the
Craftsy fabrics
that I'd purchased in 2018 (from the
Boundless DECOdent Earthtone Stash Builder
collection) and cut it into strips to make straight binding. Hubby says
the placemats look better than they did before. I'm not sure myself, but I
do know that this was the best way that I could think of to protect them
from further fraying.
Other things don't fray, but rather stretch out.
In 2019, I made
some cushions for a pair of shinto stools
using my
Ode to the Canadian Penny
fabric and some inserts from old chair pads that were almost destined for
the trash. Like my placemats, these have been in constant use ever since,
and over the past year or so, I'd noticed that the elastic had – like
elastic is prone to do – stretched out significantly to the point that the
cushions were slip sliding around.
|
| Shortening up some elastic... |
The way to fix it was obvious and is shown in the photo above. It was just
a bit tricky to get in close enough to do the sewing with a sewing
machine. (I supposed I could have done the job with some hand sewing.) But
now these cushions fit snugly once more and I am happy with the outcome.
So that covers repairs and maintenance. What about discarded things that
you might suddenly have a use for?
One of my fabric origami projects, the
six pocket pouch, also made an appearance here in 2019. It's a simple thing that starts
with a fabric square of any size. As a demonstration of "don't use too
small of a square," I also folded a tiny version for comparison's sake.
|
| My old 6 pocket origami pouch with a tiny companion... |
The small one shown above was not sewn together at the time, but luckily,
I did hold onto it all these years (it was actually in my scraps pile).
When it occurred to me that it had potential as a gift bag for a small
ring, I first congratulated myself on remembering where it might be (!)
and then, after I found it, took the time to hand sew as much of it was
needed to turn it into something unique and useful. (Full disclosure: it
does not have all of the expected six pockets.)
|
| Teeny tiny origami pouch with some pockets... |
A ball shaped button and a thin red ribbon functions as a "loop and tie"
closure for the pouch. Quite dainty and pretty if I do say so myself.
I've done some intriguing things with old fleece scarves in the past (check this post here), but even though I've had this red one for a long time, it has never received the upcycle treatment. Actually, the last thing that I considered doing with it, was to use the material to make mitts.
Fortunately that didn't happen, or I wouldn't now have this literal and
figurative "statement" scarf.
|
| Adding patriotic commentary to an old Roots fleece scarf... |
Back the mid-1980s, I took white felt and cut out the name and number of
one of my favourite hockey players at the time and hand sewed it onto the
back of a jersey. (Forty-some years ago, it wasn't yet a given thing for
every hockey fan to shell out a couple hundred bucks for a custom jersey;
personally, I still can't contemplate doing so.)
I figured that if that job wasn't beyond me, it shouldn't be too difficult
to sew twelve letters onto a scarf. Without a doubt, the hardest part was
to cut out the letters. (I put double sided tape onto the back of the
paper letters before placing them onto my material of choice and then
cutting again.) Instead of felt, I used fusible fleece – which allowed the
letters to be adhered to a certain extent – and then did a quasi-blanket
stitch around them to secure.
Not being a hand-sewing enthusiast in general, this was one of those times
when the activity – pursued over a period of a few weeks – was
particularly therapeutic and reflective. It was a worthwhile diversion. (I
did this back in March, hence the snow in the pic.)
What do you do between major sewing projects?
'Til next... 🇨🇦🍁
