Thread Has Arrived

Why buy one spool when you can buy 20? 

My thread has arrived so pants pocket repair will commence tomorrow. I had no idea just how complicated pants are to make. Although, now that I've really torn into a pair, it's not all that bad. The trick is knowing what order to sew stuff together. I reverse engineered my pocket, took notes, drew some pictures, and then tried pinning parts together. 

Notes and thread, with the original pocket bag

You can see in the photo that I tried just re-sewing the original seam along the edge of the pocket, which sort of worked but then you can also see that there was another hole which needed to be patched. Darning may have worked but I have not really tried darning. Ultimately, I decided that the only real solution was complete replacement of the pocket. It has been a very educational project. 

For starters, I learned a little about fabric selection. Initially I was tempted to use the toughest, most durable fabric I could find - like Cordura Nylon or old fire hose material or something like that. No doubt I could carry my pocket knife in the open position and not have to worry about wearing a hole in a Cordura pocket. But, it's worth considering that a front pocket bag rubs against your thigh. Cordura isn't the most comfortable fabric out there and it's sort of stiff. The original pocket in my pants was a lovely, soft cotton. Felt very nice against my skin. Unfortunately, it was a very thin fabric and not durable at all. 

There's a balance between comfort and durability when it comes to pockets which I had never considered before. Besides being durable, you also want a fabric that will protect your skin from whatever you carry in your pocket. Like keys. Sometimes even nails or screws. Rocks. Etc. 

The replacement pocket with reinforcements sewn on

I opted for some knit material I bought a long time ago to patch a hole in a pair of my wife's slacks. It's fairly thick but very flexible and obviously somewhat comfortable since they make entire pairs of pants out of it. We'll see if I made a good choice. 

Another lesson learned already on this repair project: basting is your friend! Or just pinning. At some point I got a little overly enthusiastic and sewed a couple of pieces together before I really knew what I was doing. Naturally, I also used a tiny stitch length, so when I had to tear all that stitching apart I had to work extra hard at it. A good basting stitch would have allowed me to figure out how things needed to be put together without a lot of unnecessary seam ripping. I won't forget that in the future. More on pockets and this repair tomorrow or later this week. 
 

The headliner is glued down! 

This afternoon I got inspired to finish gluing down the faux suede on the headliner shell for my truck. If you don't look close, it doesn't look too bad. Another lesson in fabric selection here. You can see all the compound curves and recesses I was working with. I actually thought ahead on this and chose a fabric which seemed to have enough stretch to force into all these little curves. That didn't work out exactly as hoped and I've got a handful of spots where the fabric just didn't stick to the shell. I'll have to figure out a way to get those spots flattened out. I may just sew the fabric down to the shell. I had to make some relief cuts at the corners because those spots were just too complex for the fabric to stick. I'm not super happy with how it turned out, especially because my seam isn't centered on the headliner shell, but I'll make it work somehow. I guess for a first effort it turned out alright. I'd give it a C. 

Lumpy Returns

Lumpy is back! I never really went away. True to form, I got all hyped up about sewing and sewing machines and got in over my head to the point where I had to take a break and pursue other interests for a while (mainly swimming and lifeguarding but I've also done a lot of hiking and biking in the past year). I have a long list of projects that remain unfinished and my wife is getting a little impatient with my collection of fabric, patterns, tools, and sewing machines which eventually took over the (unused) formal dining room. (NOTE: it's always been unused. It's not like we used to use our formal dining room but had to quit using it because of all my stuff. I put my stuff there because it was unused space. Just wanted to make that clear. Does anybody actually use the dining room in their house anymore?) 

You'd think after a couple of years of working from home and not being able to go very many places I'd have finished at least one sewing project. I have not. I attempted to make a tiny ottoman-shaped pin cushion from a pattern set which I thought would be good practice for sewing small curves. It did not go well. My pin cushion looks like a sad, truncated cone-shaped clown. I have repaired one purse strap for my aunt  and resized two tactical equipment belts for a friend. And I sewed the two pieces of faux suede together for the roof liner in my truck. Took all the courage I could muster to take a pair of scissors to a 4-yard piece of faux suede. I was, as usual, terrified that I'd mess it up. I need to get that installed. I won't even try to recreate my list of undone projects; it starts with two sets of curtains and a dozen or so cushions for our patio chairs. 

Faux suede headliner - a 6' seam

I finally took the Beast to Collier's Equipment and got it working right, so there will be some heftier projects getting done soon. I need a hanging loop on my leaf vac and the Beast was born for that sort of thing. At some point I realized that I wasn't as interested in fixing sewing machines as I thought I was. Or, at least, at some point I had so many sewing projects stacked up that any interest I have in fixing sewing machines was overcome by the need to actually use a sewing machine to get some projects done. 

Meanwhile, I acquired a Singer 153-102 cylinder machine which needs a bit of tuning up. Not really sure when I last posted to this blog, but I also acquired yet a real Singer 20u33 not too long ago (the first one I got was actually a 20u13). And,  three more domestic machines that were just sitting in a thrift store begging to be taken (a Singer 503A, Brother 211, and a Kenmore 18023). Enough! 

Singer 503A

Brother 211

Kenmore 18023 in working order

Recently my wife made it clear that she wasn't very happy with the state of the dining/sewing room, which, to be fair, is right inside the front door. It's impossible for guests to not see it, so I got my rear in gear and started moving everything upstairs to the bonus room over the garage. Funnily enough, the previous owner used the bonus room for sewing. But, I originally had this space reserved as my dream music room. It's huge - plenty of room for all my music stuff plus a full-sized ping pong table for between set entertainment. The ping pong table has mostly been a work table to lay out one of the curtain projects, but laying out the pattern is about as far as that has gotten. Anyway, that space will be the new sewing area eventually. But, I can't just move a bunch of half-finished or "quick" projects upstairs - those are getting finished first. Starting with a pair of cargo pants with a hole in the pocket. 

I cannot stand to have a hole in a front pants pocket. Something about that feeling when I put my hand in my pocket and there's a hole I can't stop myself from jamming my finger through the hole which rarely helps. I'm just getting started on repair because I first had to pick a machine for the job and get it cleaned up and tuned. Probably should have just gone with my trusty Singer light-industrial 241-12 but it's threaded up with T92 thread for heavier stuff. So, the Kenmore 18023 it is. 

This machine worked OK right out of the thrift store. The feed dogs were a little inconsistent but I believe that was mostly a presser foot tension issue. The machine was really clean when I got it but a      little dusting and oiling helped some. I started out using overly heavy thread because I didn't have anything lighter in a suitable color. Most of the time I can fake the thread color with black or white, but the pants I'm fixing are OD green and contrasting thread won't look right. So, I ordered a box of thread from one of my preferred suppliers - 15 assorted king spools, 3 lbs. of assorted partial spools of embroidery thread that was on clearance, and a 1500 yard spool of OD green size T69 nylon thread. Should be here tomorrow. 

Projects

20u33 #3

Singer cylinder machine