Small Mends

Do you ever have small mending projects to do that you avoid for months and then realize you can do them in about ten minutes? I did two of those kind of projects this weekend!

First off there was a corduroy shirt that my husband wanted me to fix somehow - one elbow had gotten so thin that it just tore one day. It was way too big of a tear and the fabric too worn out to patch. So, because it was such a lightweight fabric, he wondered if I could just make it short sleeved. Of course! Eight months later, this project was done in about ten minutes start to finish. 

I used one of his other shirts to find the right length for the sleeve. Fortunately there was enough fabric above the tear to make it his preferred length. I just added a 1 inch hem and cut it. Then of course I had to cut the other sleeve the same way - can't have a one sleeved shirt! I just pressed the hem under and stitched it down. I didn't have any matching thread as I don't sew in tans or browns for myself, so just used a brownish grey that I had in my greys. It worked out fine! Now that is complete and off my mending pile. 

The next one was really more of a little fix than a mend. I made a Burda dress from green linen last year, and found that I didn't wear it because I felt like the bust darts were too pointy and this fabric is hard to press, it doesn't like to lie flat. So I unpicked the side seams from about an inch above to 4 inches below the dart, unpicked the dart and just gathered the fabric uptake into the side seam. There are more visible gathers at the seam than I'd like but it's under my arm so not too obvious. 

This now allows the dart uptake to be spread out over that area, but there is no pulling or poky dart ends in sight. It has taken a few steam presses to get the dart lines out of the fabric but I think I will be more likely to pull this one on now. I'm happy with it - it's a "good enough" fix. I'm really trying to get some of those longstanding projects off the pile!