One of my earlier posts from exactly 5 years ago today… I still remember crackin’ myself up while writing this…
Today I feel like Bill Murray’s character, Bob, in the movie, “What About Bob”, one of my all time favorites. It is a hilarious laugh fest throughout every scene. In the movie, Bill Murray portrays a man riddled with anxiety who has every phobia in the book. He “accidentally” ends up on vacation with his psychiatrist, played by Richard Dreyfuss, and ends up driving his doctor completely out of his mind. My favorite scene in the movie is when he is covered in life jackets and tied to the mast of the sailboat joyously and triumphantly proclaiming,
“I’M SAILING! I’M SAILING!”
What does this have to do with today’s post you ask? Well, today I’ve forced myself to do something I don’t like to do so I’m feeling a bit like Bill Murray and I want to triumphantly proclaim:
“I’M MENDING! I’M MENDING!”
You see, as strange as this might sound, I hate to mend.
WHAT??!!?!!? Screeeeeetch…. Back the truck up! I can almost hear you shout.
The Renegade Seamstress hates to mend?
Yep, it’s true. I’ve never been much of a mender. In the past, I’d rather stick a needle in my eye. But today, I’m actually mending and much like Bill Murray’s character, Bob, I want to tie myself to my sewing machine and joyously shout out my amazing accomplishment to the world.
“I’M MENDING! I’M MENDING!”
It all started because I’m too cheap to go out and buy new jeans for Cooper. His jeans are wearing out quickly, but with summer fast approaching and school just about over, I’d rather not buy any new jeans now, since he’ll most likely grow out of them by fall. So here I am, actually mending a pair and finding it’s really not as bad I as thought. Not only did I mend Coop’s jeans, but I also made a tutorial for you just in case you also have a bad case of “Mendaphobia”.
It’s really not that horrific, you’ll see…..we’ll do this in baby steps.
First turn your jeans inside out.
See, that didn’t hurt. Now gather some scraps of thick fusible interfacing. I happen to have loads of scraps from all of the tote bags I make.
Next, place the jeans over the end of the ironing board and straighten the rip as much as possible so it lies flat. So far, so good.
Now iron on a piece of fusible interfacing directly over the rip. Baby steps… Baby steps…
Using a zig zag stitch, sew back and forth and all around the interfacing until you’ve covered the entire area. Just keep changing directions. No need to panic.
When you’ve finished sewing, this is what the patch will look like on the inside. If you find thin areas, don’t fret, just add more interfacing and continue sewing with a zig zag stitch over the next piece of interfacing. Continue until all of the thin ripped areas are covered.
Breathe deeply, count to ten and trim the excess interfacing.
There now. You successfully faced your Mendaphobia! See, it wasn’t so bad, was it!
Happy Sewing (and Mending)!
Beth
The Renegade Seamstress 
Thank you for sharing mending jeans!
Now I can repair my husbands many overalls successfully.
Oh I’m so glad this will be helpful to you. 🙂 Happy Mending, Kathy!!!
Congratulations and Thank you very much. I am just learning/teaching myself to sew at the young age of 65. This is great, and inspiring. Just jump I say. If it looks too bad when it’s completed I’ll just call it an ashtray.
Good for you Pamela! Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with on your sewing adventures. 🙂
I, too, love that movie!! One of my very favorites! I’ve been getting into mending as art in hopes I will enjoy it more! 🙂
What a great idea, Amber, to look at mending as art! Bill Murray would be proud. 🙂
I’m glad you’ve overcome your mending phobia. I hate mending also, and I’m not a fan of alterations either. A “just do it” approach is what seems to work best for me as well when there’s a new skill to be tackled.
Using fusible interfacing is a great idea. I mended a pair of jeans years ago for a coworker. Her son had torn his expensive new jeans when climbing a fence. It was a 3-corner tear on the front of the leg, of course! I used a matching dark fabric on the wrong side, but fusible interfacing would have been much easier. Lol I’ll use that next time.
Working from the right side, I used free motion sewing loose circles at first to “nail” everything in place, and then changed to straight stitches moving back and forth with the grain. Using matching thread and sewing with the grain made the mend all but invisible. What started out as a daunting task ended with a very pleasing result. My thanks for that scary adventure came in the form of a lovely bottle of wine!! 😃
Thank you for sharing your mending story Donna. It’s amazing how, sometimes, when we go out of our comfort zones, we surprise ourselves with success. 🙂 Cheers to that bottle of wine!
Thank you for sharing your mending method with fusable interfacing. I mend everything from shoes to clothes for my family, relatives and buddies. This will greatly simplify “jean mending”. Thank you so much for sharing!!!
You are so very welcome, Willis. You are my mending hero! I’m trying to enjoy it more because it is oh so important these days. Thank you for your nice comment. 🙂
Yeah for you! I mend jeans a bit different than you do… this way… the mend doesn’t hardly show and it is a bit stronger too. First off instead of interfacing (I used to use it too until I figured out this way) I use a bit of spray adhesive, then put a piece of old blue jeans (about similar to the size of the interfacing you used) over that and I use a straight stitch going the grain of the jeans… and honestly my hubby has looked for the mends from the outside and sometimes can’t find them. He’s picky… but like you if it keeps me from having to buy him new jeans a bit longer… yeah me!!!
Thanks for all you do…
Oh this is a wonderful way to mend, too. Thanks so much for sharing it with everyone, Jean. 🙂 Happy Mending!!!