What A Sewer Does Between Projects

The things a sewer does can be somewhat mundane...

Or... things I do because I sew.

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.

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?

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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.

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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... 🇨🇦🍁