Sunday, July 5, 2009

Mending Made Interesting

I hate mending. Actually, I'd rather make a garment from scratch than mend. DH has a lounge shirt that ripped up the side. He also wanted a button or snap to close the front opening. That's not a big whoop, right? So, it sat on my table (hidden under interfacing) for several days. After considerable nagging, I finally decided to get it done. The interesting part is the button loop. I often use an elastic ponytail tie as the loop for button closures on purses. I'd been wondering if that approach would work on garments. Well, it worked well on this shirt. All I do is position the tie, tack it down by hand, and cut off the part not used for the loop. I think it looks pretty good and is easy to slide off the button. That's not always true for thread loops in my experience. I don't think that it would work for any garment that is not casual but it certainly is a speedy way to do a closure.
Yes, I also fixed the ripped seam. I wanted it done to stop the nagging until the next mending project. Poor guy, he really does need to get some benefit from all the time I spend in my sewing room. This "project" took all of 30 minutes max. Once I decided to do a "sewing sample", it was no problem at all getting it done - just an attitude change.

6 comments:

Alicia said...

I hate mending as well! I've actually given away pants rather than take the ten minutes needed to shorten them. Good on ya' for doing it! And the button loop looks made for the shirt. I wouldn't have thought of hair ties but it's really perfect.

BConky said...

I hate mending too. It stinks. Not fun at all. I use the ponytail holders that way to.

gwensews said...

I hate mending also. Boo!

Trudy said...

I would much rather sew something from scratch than mend as well. I have a whole pile of mending waiting for me.

www.sewingwithtrudy.blogspot.com

Audrey said...

Lovely yard. I am envious of all the open space with sunlight for growing flowers. The large trees in my yard are shading my flower beds more and more each year. I dislike mending too. Great idea to use the hair elastic for loops. It looks so professional.

Becky said...

It's amusing that so many of us sewers would rather make a new outfit than mend the old one! I guess because it's just boring and lacking creativity most of the time. Kind of like seam ripping. That's a really clever idea for the button loop, though!

And I think the computer problems are all straightened out for the moment. And I do have the pics up!