The Renegade Seamstress

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