No new historic projects finished this month: there are a few in progress that I hope to complete in December, but otherwise most of my sewing time went into repairing modern clothing. Most recently, this involved patching my winter woolen tights, though I did get another round of mending my 16th century linen hose before putting them away for the season.
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| Less daunting than I feared to patch these tights, and they're wearing just fine. |
Backdating this one, as it was actually finished in early October. My rolled sewing kit got hit by a bad rainstorm back in '18 or thereabouts which deformed the cardboard components. It still functioned just fine, however, until this year when the fabric over most of the hard edges finally broke down.
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| Exhibit A: The sewing roll, a bit worse for wear. |
Be that as it may, I really like this sewing kit, and wanted to change it as little as possible. I started by removing the box and lid, from which I separated the pin-cushion. I took the opportunity to repair a small worn spot along the edge of the main piece where the box joins it, and ironed the whole piece while it was flat. I then cut and covered a new box and lid. I re-used the blue and red coral print for the pin cushion, but added more wool roving to the cushion itself. Then it was time to join the box back onto the body. I'd forgotten just how much I dislike sewing hard-sided 3D objects together...
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| Kit with new box. |
I'm happy with the new box, though I miss the old fabric a bit still. I just didn't have any of the purple feather for the new lid, nor the foulard for covering the box (though I liked how it looked with the diamonds when closed). I did manage to get the old foulard into the lid, piecing it twice to make it fit. I also realized upon finishing that the original ties are badly fading and starting to fray along the folds, so I may need to replace them in the near future as well.
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| And closed. The green print looks better with the interior, in my opinon. |
Not much to look at, but I am trying to be more timely in my mending this year and there's nothing like a scheduled blog post to hold me accountable. January flew by, so I only got a few small tasks done.
My quilted petticoat ties gave out when I last wore it, and needed to be replaced. A few stitches also secured a bit of the waistband which came loose, and an inch of the placket which worked free.
My pink half-apron has also seen some tough times. I ended up securing both pockets where the edges were coming loose, and reattaching the skirt to the waistband at two points where they detached. I also moved both buttons into better positions, so that I can actually fasten the apron with them, instead of knotting the waistband.
