Mending Me-Mades

Whether your wardrobe consists of RTW clothing or me-mades, maintaining those items ensures that they will last more than one season. Mending, updating, re-fitting, refashioning, changing out buttons and zippers, etc. all help keep items of clothing wearable and in rotation. As I am still fairly new to garment sewing, there are definitely things that I have made that aren't yet ready to stand the test of time. My knowledge in the areas of fabric choice, types of seams, fitting, etc. are continuing to develop, but I still make mistakes or poor fabric choices at times. No worries, I learn a lot from sewing mistakes and, if possible, from fixing them. Here are a few pieces that I have had to mend or change recently to keep them wearable.

Lander Pants--split seat seam
I did not get a picture of the actual split seam, but it was about 3" long on the seat seam.  Yes, this happened at work. Fortunately, it was at the end of the day and I was wearing dark underwear and a long shirt, so I'm hoping no one noticed.  Although, if they did, they probably had a good chuckle.
Close inspection of the seam revealed that I had never actually sewn and serged it. It was only basted with a long stitch to check fitting and I forgot to go back and finish it. After sewing and finishing the seam, these pants were good-to-go.

Resewn and serged on the inside

View from back after mending

Chambray Dress--patched side seam
At the end of the day, after wearing this dress to work, I noticed a tear in the side seam. Fortunately, it was near the hem and not very revealing. This seam had been serged, but the fabric itself tore outside of the seam. I really like the soft, worn look and feel of this dress so I had no qualms about visibly mending with patches.

I used a light blue thread and a zig-zag stitch to sew a patch onto the back of the seam. This fabric is old and it will probably tear/fray in other areas, so I'm ready to add more patches as needed. I also added a small preemptive patch on the hem. It's not completely torn yet, but you can see where the seam is stressed.

Two small patches

I have worn this dress a few times since it was patched and, as of yet, have had no more problems.

Tamarack Jacket --gets a zipper
This is a wearable muslin. Originally, I put in hook and eye closures because I didn't have a fitting zipper and the opening didn't lend itself to buttons. As long as there was no breeze, the coat worked well. Since the hook and eyes didn't actually hold the coat closed though, a breeze went right through the 1/2" to 1" wide gap between the front panels. I had been wearing this jacket in the mornings when my coworkers and I walked before school. The quilt batting layer keeps this coat warm, but I was tired of holding the front closed as I walked.

Hook and eye closures

 All of the hook and eyes came off and will be saved for a future project.

All but one set can be reused

Trying out zipper possibilities

This white zipper was the only one I found in my collection that was long enough, so I basted it in. When I went to try on the coat I realized it was not a coil-separating zipper and I'd have to step into my jacket to get it on and off. So, that zipper came out and I went to Joann's to find a separating zipper. This time I had a better color selection and decided that the navy blue would be a better match.

I prefer the blue color and only had to trim 1 1/2" off the top of the zipper

Zipper goes all the way up 

Pocket binding progress is impeded

While I was making zipper improvements, I also decided to put binding on the pocket seams.  They were fraying and even though the rest of the inside isn't particularly impressive and I wouldn't be showing it off, I didn't want to have threads hanging off my pockets. I just used a package of white pre-made binding for both pockets.

Jacket with new zipper and non-visible finished pocket seams

All three of these items are now back in the closet ready for their next outing. I'm caught up on my mending, so I can go back to planning new projects.