Want to tackle the huge stack of linens in my mending basket, but think "50" cotton is to strong for fine percale and linen. Is fine cotton darning thread (80) still made? Or, should I try Mettler instead? Any ideas for patches? Am thinking fine cotton muslin or hitting the thrifts for a second hand good percale sheet to use for patching material.
Did some darning using my Pfaff and 50 cotton, and while the darning work looked good, think it was tad to thick. Maybe switching to a smaller needle? Was using an 80/12.
Size 80 cotton thread is still made, I think the Heirloom Sewing stores carry it. However, I question the utility of darning cotton or fine linen sheets. I have done it in the past, and found that, invariably, more holes quickly appear. In my view, it is of more use to turn the good parts of the sheet into pillowcases and make or buy new sheets. Old, worn sheets are also useful for making Hallowe'en costumes, testing new patterns, wrapping good linens or antique fibres of any kind for deep storage, making cloth bags to cover "dress" clothes, using as dropcloths when painting or dust covers while sanding etc. I _never_ throw out old sheets until they have completely disintegrated.
Agree with you about new holes popping up, but mending and darning these linens will give me good practice on my "new" Pfaff, as well as refreshing my sewing skills after a long hiatus. Probably will just put small bits of fabric beneath the worn areas before darning, and patch the larger areas.
Love that busy work! *LOL*
Candide
"Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." Quentin Crisp 1908 - 1999 _+_+_+_+_+_+__+_+_+_+_
Thank you for that! Was actually considering using cotton lawn or similar fabric (do not use dryer FS sheets), but the concept is the same. Thankfully my machine has several darning/mending stitches so once the prep work is done it is only a matter of getting to the sewing.
Happy sewing!
Candide "Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." Quentin Crisp 1908 - 1999 _+_+_+_+_+_+__+_+_+_+_
Of course, there is also the good old fashioned technique of 'sides to middle'. This assumes the wear spots are in the center of your sheet. Cut sheet in half, flat fell or other flat seam finish to join the sides together. Hem your new sides. Voila, new sheet with good material in the middle and worn out material at the sides. Very simple, but I have always wondered whether it would leave an uncomfortable lump in the middle....
Having had experience of sheets sewn this way during the war to make them last (no, I'm not that old, but I slept at my grandmother's neighbour's house a few times - she was still using up sheets treated like this in the 1970's!), I have to say YES! OK in a double bed shared with Big Sis - if either of use strayed over the line, we knew we were in enemy territory and liable for a sharp poke with a toe or elbow! Likewise patches and darns... Oddly, patches are better when hand sewn, as far as comfort goes: the softer finish of a hand sewn single thread...
Hmm, this "sides to middle" mending of bend linens seems good for martial birth control! *LOL*
Sides to middle mending seems to work best on vintage bed linens of heavy linen or cotton, rather than today's thin "high thread count" percales. Vintage Pequot muslin and Wamsutta percale sheets would take mending easily and just keep going. IMHO, today's modern sheets are so thin it is near impossible to mend without creating more holes or weak spots.
thread...
Agreed, but have so much in my mending box and so little time, so hand mending is out of the question for now. Have also considered applying strips of thin iron on patching material to the wrong side to close the damaged areas, then machine mending on the right side. My logic being that the thin patching material would provide a bit of reinforcement to the percale without bulk. It would also mean no frayed edges.
Candide
"Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." Quentin Crisp 1908 - 1999 _+_+_+_+_+_+__+_+_+_+_
Hmmmm...am I the only one present who has slept on sheets made of _feedsacks_ seamed together? (at the home of first DH...his parents were 'poorer than dirt'). It was a long time ago, but I still remember the seams as being very uncomfortable.
I don't remember sleeping on the feed sack sheets though my maternal DGM had some. But Oh! do I ever remember the seams in the middle of sheets! Luckily, I always shared double beds with one of my DSs, and both of us were careful not to cross "the center line". Emily
I wouldn't know about that... ;) We've only had the one.
Yes. These sheets were old pre-war linen sheets the dear old lady (in her 80's when I knew her in the early 70's) had as wedding presents. I don't bother mending sheets. New good quality fitted sheets last long enough for boredom to set in (my Marks & Spencer percale poly-cotton wedding present ones did almost 20 years), and new ones are now cheap enough that I just replace the old when the underblanket starts poking through!
Iron-on only works so far... It doesn't stay stuck, and darning over it, by machine or hand, even with fine thread, creates uncomfortable lumps. The only places to bother, I'd say, are holes close to edges, caused by mangles and other accidents in the laundry.
By the time I was old enough to remember, we were rich enough to use the seed-corn sack sheets only as top sheets, and then only when the laundry didn't get done. My older sisters, born during the depression, remember those sheets vividly.
Mom somehow accumulated a large collection of seed-corn sacks, which my sister is still using as dish towels -- they are thick and soft and just *don't* wear out.
All my play clothes were made of chicken-feed sacks -- Mom would take me to the hatchery to pick them out. I wish we could still buy that fabric. It was so soft and comfortable! The more-efficient spinning machines now in use make a harder thread, so such fabric can no longer be woven, unless there are some obsolete spinning mills in India or China.
It made good, if small, tablecloths. Would have made good napkins, but we got rich enough to use paper napkins before I was old enough to notice. I still have a sugar-sack napkin in my cedar chest; Mom was entirely baffled that I wanted something that reminded her of such hard times. She had embroidered it even though she couldn't wash the word "sugar" out!
Speaking of sugar sacks, my Grandmother never had a comfortable bra after they stopped putting sugar in cloth bags. When I made her some bras modeled on a worn-out sugar-sack bra, I naively bought the most-expensive (i.e. tight-woven and hard) unbleached muslin in the store!
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