Mending?  Why?  Do I have to?

I was thrilled to have my husband home from 6 weeks away, but so not thrilled that he brought home 3 pairs of work coveralls to mend.  YUCK!  I love to make handbags, purses, design sewing patterns, quilt, and even sew new clothes... but I HATE mending.  Why?  It's just not creative or fun.  It really isn't crafty.  So when my husband sheepishly asked me to mend his coveralls, I asked: "Can't you just buy new ones?"  "Don't you have some kind of service for that?"  "Surely, we have people for this...."  He just replied, "Yes... YOU, Dear, please?"   Grand.  Just Grand.

Huge open, frayed, tears - they are always trouble.  Luckily they were easily accessible by machine, and luckily I had cut enough off of the hems to create patches.  (If you don't have this, try finding some matching material, or using the backside of a pocket.)

After cutting away all of the frayed threads, I often put a piece of fabric on the wrong side, and from the right side I zig zag like crazy over the hole, filling it all in with thread.  This is quite messy and not the right way to do it.  I wanted to do it much neater this time, and make some patches that would have the other coverall clad men on the work site swooning with envy, so I placed my matching fabric (cut from the bottom during hemming) on top, and luckily while reaching for my pins, I saw my double-sided, wash-away tape (I used Dritz Wonder Tape found in any fabric or quilting store).  This worked FANTASTIC!  I placed the tape on either side of the hole, placed my fabric patch on top and went to town, zig-zag stitching around the border of the patch.



I did get a little carried away with the stitching, as usual, but no harm done.  These are just for the work site, and not anything that will be seen by the general public.  Maybe the other workers won't be swooning, maybe better next time?


The tape worked great on a corner pocket as well.  No sliding, no puckering, and no pins to deal with.  Maybe this is not that exciting to you... but if you hated everything about mending, this method takes a little bit of the pain away.  HINT: I always use a jeans needle, so when I hit thick seams, like pockets corners, I have no troubles.



I don't know all the rules about mending, I am not - exemplary- at it...  so I found you some helpful links, that are a bit more thorough:
Patch a Hole in a Piece of Clothing
Mending Holes and Rips in Your Clothes

So double-sided tape - it's perfect for sewing in zippers and mending - what else?

I hope this helped, thank you for reading!