Mending

I learned a new skill last week!  This sock (the first pair I made for Robert) has been sitting in my mending pile for several weeks.  I finally sat down and worked my way through the whole pile so I wouldn't have to move un-mended clothing.  I used this tutorial on how to knit on a patch, and I'm happy with how it turned out.  Next time I would pay more attention and make sure to knit the patch in the same direction as the socks - it didn't occur to me that this would be an issue when I was picking up stitches, but I think that would make it easier to graft the live stitches to the sock at the end of the patch.  I wasn't really thinking and knit this patch in the heel-to-cuff direction, even though the socks were knit cuff down.

The leftover black yarn from these socks is long gone, so I used some of the leftover navy blue from Robert's new socks.  Hopefully the patch will be hidden under his pant leg, so he can continue to wear these as dress socks!

Mending day

Last Saturday, I did some mending that I've been meaning to do for quite a while.  I started with Robert's kindle cover, which I originally made with a black hair tie as the closure loop,  Sewing through it didn't do the hair band much good, and the inner rubber band broke almost immediately.  I ripped out the hair tie, made a narrow fabric loop, and stitched that in.  The stitching isn't as pretty as it was before, but it's much more functional. 

Then I machine darned a hole in the sleeve of one of my hiking shirts.  I happened to have just the right color thread, and it turned out to be very easy.  I also stitched up a hole in the seam of my bright pink long-sleeved t-shirt, something I've been meaning to do since the second time I wore it.  The hole was a manufacturing defect - the edge of the fabric somehow didn't get caught in the seam.

I also felted a little flower over a hole in my striped cashmere sweater.  Still left to be mended is one of my pink socks, which unfortunately has a manufacturing defect - somehow I left a live stitch in the lace pattern. 

May FNSI Results

 Last night I sat down and altered 8 of my old workout T-shirts!  All of these were originally size medium, and some of them were pretty stretched out, too.  These days I'm wearing size small - with my iPod nano clipped on to the hem when I'm working out, it really bothers me if there's enough room for the shirt to flap around. 

Here's one of the shirts before I did anything to it.  I turned it inside out and smoothed it out completely flat, and used a size small t-shirt that I like as a template.  I turned the small shirt inside out and smoothed it out, too, and then used my chalk marker to trace where the new side seams should be, up to where they meet the armhole seams.  Then I turned the line 90 degrees and went out to the sleeve hem.  I pinned along the line, sewed along it with a somewhat narrow zig-zag (using a "stretch" needle in my machine), and cut off the excess fabric with pinking shears.

Here's the result.  A much better fit!  After I knew that the first one worked, I did the others assembly-line style.
Now I have a bunch of refreshed work-out shirts!

The Friday Night Sew-In is hosted by Crafty Vegas Mom this month.

Mending my pink sweater

Robert and I are going to his cousin's wedding this evening. This pink ballet wrap sweater is the only nice sweater I currently own (and the color is much nicer than the picture shows - it's a lovely tulip pink). When my mom was visiting last weekend, she helped me pick out a new dress to wear with it - a grey knee-length dress with lace and bead-work. The only problem was, the sweater had a hole. Right under the armpit, where a seam opened up a few months ago (it's kind of a sculptural sweater, and not super-easy to get on and off). As Robert can attest, my usual reaction to clothes with holes is to toss them in the trash, but this sweater is way too special for that, and it was only in the seam, so I just stopped wearing it until I could fix it.

Of course I lost the extra thread that came with the sweater, but instead I used one ply of this sock yarn - I figured that since the sweater is cashmere, wool yarn would be more suitable than cotton embroidery thread, which was the only other remotely matching yarn/thread I have. The repair is far from invisible, but it's pretty good, and it'll be hidden under my arm, so I'm happy.