Mending tutorial

Mending isn’t one of the most exciting crafts out there – ha! But it is really satisfying when the pile is gone. Here are a couple mending projects I tackled yesterday. The first is a pair of jeans I got at a garage sale. I loved the thin, stretchy denim but they were too long and they had a long slit up the sides at the bottom. NOT my style! But for a buck I don’t mind doing a little altering. Well, I hacked them off at the right length and sewed the slit closed. Like this -

This is what it looks like on the outside after being stitched -

(I don’t mind the frayed look on the bottom – it wears itself out after a few washings – so I just top stitched around the bottom “hem”) This is what it looks like on the inside after being stitched. I put a piece of denim under the slit and top stitched on the front. This doesn’t change the shape of the pants.

Next, my hubbie will wear a pair of pants until they are literally falling off him. Usually it is that favorite pair of fishing/hunting pants. Well, we were on a launch (fishing) and I got a good look at him in those favorite pants and vowed to put them in the mending pile when we got home. They had some pretty big holes right above the cargo pockets. I don’t think the cargo pockets are designed to hold 10 pounds of fishing stuff! So this is how I go about a basic hole mending session -

Step 1 – locate the hole -

Turn the pants inside out and iron the fabric flat. You don’t want to change the shape of the pants with the patch – cause then they will no longer be a favorite! Then Put down a piece of fusible web and on top of that a piece of denim – usually cut from another pair of pants that have gone beyond the mending pile. Iron. (Sorry the picture is so washed out. Aren’t cameras tricky things? There was maybe too much light when I took this picture!)

Then turn right side out and zig zag around the hole. This picture shows the inside after it’s been zig zaged and trimmed.

This picture shows what the finished mended hole looks like. (Just a note – when you are sewing over the really bulky parts like where the pocket seam is it is a good idea to loosen the tension on your presser foot. Then turn back to normal after your over the bulky part. Otherwise you’ll find your sewing machine sewing stuck in one place.)

Easy. I like using the fusible web because then you don’t have to use pins. I used to use a million pins in there and it would change the shape of the fabric – the mended pants just never felt the same. Not to mention it was always a whole nother’ project to get the blood out after I stuck myself a thousand times on those pins! This method works very well!!