Mending

Mine doesn't think he can climb the tree, but he's mighty proud of having scared the beat off. ;-)

Am I forgiven? It was just such a perfect target. ;-}

the "beast".

Grumble...new keyboard...snarl....

Ouch, back pain is pretty darned awful at any time, but driving...? Yikes, I hope your vehicle has an automatic transmission..

Indeed!

I did! Went to the family reunion picnic, the temperature was just a few degrees shy of the 100F that was predicted. I stayed in the shade consumed vast quantities of Arnold Palmers (1/2 iced tea, 1/2 lemondade) over ice, and took my little dog to the delight of all the children, and to him. He gets bored with just me to play with. ;-}

Get better soon, Larisa, and take it easy on your back.

Beverly

I am going back to my original plan, which I should have done after Katrina, but allowed myself to be talked out of. IOW, if the big one comes, we will stay put while we see what happens, and if it is going to be a long siege, we will drive to the nearest functioning airport and fly out to wherever we can get to where there are friends.

With my normal hurricane preps, and now especially with a generator, I figure we can get by for ten days with no city services whatsoever. DH and I are old Scouts, and we know how to cook outdoors - Coleman stove or charcoal; water does not necessarily have to be iced, etc. etc. I always bake a double batch of bread and a triple one of muffins, a beef roast and a fourth of a ham, and stock up on fruit and salad vegetables, plus water of course.

With all of this, I figure there is nothing more I can do, but we should survive.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Oh dear, I meant 'worktable', should have said 'got an apron in my workbasket'. It's a kitchen apron made from a sort of traditional farmer's fabric, woven stripes. It's got a nasty large rectangular tear where I got caught in the fence ages ago. I wanted to insert a piece of that same fabric, the way you can see in old bedsheets or such stuff, with a felled seam. Gotta go and look at vintage sewing, my aunt's book doesn't hold the info. I need step by step how-to-do with pics, I'm afraid. I could look at your site, Joy, too. but you don't have pics for your 'plain sewing'. I bet otherwise you have the info there. I could just machine-stitch a piece of fabric under it, but for me it's kind of a project to re-enact, so to say, the old technique. I think the item is worth the trouble.

U.

I could send scans of the technique from one of my old 1930's sewing books...

Oh yes, Beverly; I forgive & forget things very easily.

I have to brag a bit. DS gave me a CD yesterday with 10, ten, ladybug designs he'd downloaded from some site, to embroider on the baby's crib sheets, blankets, etc. I was thrilled to say the least. He is such a dear; I'd been complaining for a while that I couldn't find any which didn't cost 'an arm & a leg' for 2-3 in a pkg with other insects. I have no idea, where he found them, I was so happy, I didn't even ask.

He's working out of town this week; I'll cook his favorite dinner Friday. There isn't much I can do to reward him, except a special meal.

Emily

It isn't hard, just timetaking. You take the piece of cloth for the patch, and lightly tack it all round underneath the tear. Then, you fold the torn edges underneath, sandwiched between the right side of the fabric and the patch, and hem or slipstitch neatly - preferably with invisible stitches. When you have the whole thing hemmed on the right side, you turn it over, trim away the excess fabric on the patch, and hem it down neatly just as you did on the right side.

Of course, nowadays you can do most, if not all, of it by machine.

Good luck.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Thank you, dear.

Oh, Emily how wonderful. I know how you like making just the right thing for your DGDs, the ladybugs will be perfect for her nursery.

After she was born, then the DIL told me she had decorated the nursery in a cute ladybug decor and only wanted that design in there. Now, I will get busy sewing things all embroidered with ladybugs.

I got the thread a while back from ThreadArt's local store when I thought the design would be easy to find.

Emily

More of a lapped seam.

Some old books suggest putting the patch on the inside, so that as much of what shows as possible is original; I usually put a patch on the outside, since it's easier to make the new fabric look neat. In either case, matching the stripes is Very Important.

I've got access to a scanner now -- what I don't have is any trace of graphic talent. The photographs of the structure of broadfall pants, for example, aren't very illuminating.

A few days ago I filleted the discussion of broadfalls out from the discussion of pants in general; someday I'll combine it with the photographs.

Pretty much the same technique, except that you hem by hand instead of machine stitching. I mostly machine-stitch patches, but sometimes a patch is so fiddley that it's easier to sew by hand. And I patched my black wool-flannel pants by hand because I wanted to use wool thread. Between being black and the hand stitches sinking into the fuzz, they looked pretty good until they wore through again.

I often make the corners of patches not quite square -- there is a tiny bit of bias linking the two sides, so that you don't have a sharp point to start another tear. I also, when cutting away the worn fabric, leave a hole with rounded corners so that you don't have that weak spot where stresses come on a point where nothing is turned under. I believe that both considerations were less important when the patch was sewn on by hand -- you can, for example, overcast at the point where the allowance isn't, and hand stitching is more elastic than machine stitching. At any rate, the old books were very big on straight edges and sharp corners.

Joy Beeson

I remember we had this conversation before, maybe off-group. Did you ever receive the ladybug designs I e-mailed you?

No, Beverly, I am sorry I didn't. And I didn't even realize you sent any.

Recently, I discovered I wasn't receiving all my e-mails or posts on here. Since changing over to this new address, hopefully it will be better. I am certainly able to read many more posts here than before.

It would be great to get others. You are certainly a dear friend! Which reminds me, I got out the lighthouse design and I intend to put it on shirts for the three of them for Christmas. I know they'll like that.

Emily

Answered privately, Beverly

-- Emily

Nothing has come through, be sure you remove the anti-spam stuff from my e-mail address: beidesign [at] comcast dot net

Beverly