A little repair project

Hello, everyone.

Things have been a little bit busy. One reason is the subject of this post: a repair on a knit dress.

I love my Icebreaker merino-blend knit dress. Unfortunately, one day I tried to pick it up with a snaggy, sharp fingernail. Oops. A collection of very obvious holes appeared in the front bodice area.

I looked around on the internet and tried the one knit-holes repair I saw listed. It might have been all right for the back hem or someplace out of the way like that. This was to seam the edges together with the best match in an all natural thread that is around. It made glaringly obvious linear lumps on the front bodice.

So I got the seam ripper out and took the stitches away as well as possible. This was going to need a back patch, I decided, and baseball stitch. Or some reasonable facsimile of baseball stitch.

The back side of the patch, showing some basting stitches as well.

Got an old pair of pantyhose (washed) and cut a chunk out of one leg. This is the thin part of the knit, not the thick part near the waist. Basted it, two layers thick, onto the back of the dress fabric with some random thread. Put the reinforced area gently into an embroidery hoop and used the same (not quite matching) charcoal colored DMC floss to stitch the edges of the holes down and to each other as well as possible.

The front side of the patch.

After the patching stitches, the dress came out of the hoop for a while. I got out some new embroidery stabilizer: Stick n Stitch. This is a stick-on and dissolvable stabilizer. They claim you can run it through your ink jet printer but I really wasn't looking to make something that complex and heavy with stitches.

The traced daisy. I used a temporary marker pen.

Traced a daisy from the Dover Publishing floral designs book in the cabinet onto the soft (not paper) side of the stabilizer, pulled the paper backing off, and stuck the stabilizer down onto the knit. Put the hoop back on  carefully.


Stitched the daisy and a couple of leaves onto the fabric, using wool thread. (It may be tapestry thread, but the weight looked right.) I used a tapestry needle to do this, on the theory that if one uses a ball point needle to sew the knits, one should probably try to use a ball point needle to embroider them.

The threads of the flower.

Progress on the front side.









Stitches used: leaf stitch (?) for the leaves, with one strand of the Floralia. Stem stitch for the petals. Cross stitches scattered for the center of the flower. These last both in the Felicity's Garden thread.



Ready to soak:































After soaking and drip drying, the finished repair.

 The double layer of pantyhose knit seems to have worked out well for the patch behind the fabric. It has similar stretching characteristics, which matters on this kind of thing, and the dress is a thin knit so a thin patch was needed.

The Stick n Stitch worked reasonably well for a stabilizer and pattern transfer, but probably does a bit better with either a smaller needle or a crewel (sharp) needle to pierce the fuzzy stuff. I was careful not to tighten the thread tensions too much. And this dress being now even more delicate, will get hand washed from now on I think. But I love my Icebreaker tank dress. It's so comfortable and packable.

Pilgrimage 2018 is heading out

Hello everyone.

I think it was Bilbo who is supposed to have said "It's a dangerous thing to go out your door" and then reflected on how the road goes on and on.

The Camino is like that, too. It calls, and when you have answered sometimes you discover that it has built a homing beacon into your heart.

We hope to make it to Santiago's tomb this year, and to pay respects also to Our Lady of Covadonga and at Oviedo. "God willing and the creek don't rise" as they say.

Here is my personal pack load, except for the Teva sandals, hiking poles, and electronics like this device.

Wear one, pack two, as the fellow who posted his 5 kg pack video to the Camino Forum said: 2 shirts, 2 panties, 2 sock pairs (Injinji low cut lightweight) in the pack. 1 bra in the pack. 1 fleece pullover, 1 windbreaker, 1 pair of shorts--wearing the zip off pants, 1 Icebreaker merino tank dress (splurge), 1 rain poncho. The merino Infinity Buff. The two packed shirts are 1 Icebreaker tank and 1 BCG tee, the shirt I am wearing is a long sleeved ripstop.
Dopp box has toothbrush, tiny powder, razor, ear swabs, toothpaste, hairbrush, a head band and a hair liga, and a small bottle of hair/body/clothes wash. Also a poly fast dry towel. Also the little mesh box with hiking pole tips.
The Fabulous Bag to put the pack in for the flight, a dry clothes bag for the shower, a mesh bag for dirty clothes or shopping, the bag for the sleeping bag liner.
Sleeping bag and liner.
If I remember them all correctly!
Ultreia!

A few notes about gear and sewing

Hello, everyone.

There has been sewing going on around here, and thinking about what to sew...paging through the mountains of accumulated Burda Style (formerly World of Fashion) issues and wondering which of the patterns would work with the stash fabric on hand.

There is a new top done now. It's cotton cambric, a smooth-finish fabric that is a bit like batiste. I still have over a yard left of this red fabric, plus there is also a chunk of blue that is like it. (Really need to learn to either make a decision or don't get anything!)

The pattern has been made before, in a linen-rayon blend with pictures of houses.

 The linen-rayon blend was comfortable to wear while traveling, and if folded right away isn't a mass of wrinkles. (The shorts were bought at Bass Pro Shop: nylon-lycra blend fabric, extremely comfortable, though I had to add a piece of elastic at the back waist and take it in a smidge so they wouldn't fall down! They still need a belt if the phone is in the pocket.)

 Some more stash used! Though now I remember that the cut-on cap sleeves are a little bit odd when I reach forward.

 Next stash usage project: a blouse, to use up the microfiber poplin in the collection. This has a peached surface on one side, and DWR coating on the other. With only one yard, there isn't enough to make an outer garment out of it, so it will be a blouse.

The pattern, except that the gathering on the sleeves may not happen. The fabrics they had in mind for it are lightweight stuff like the cambric, and this poplin is more of a regular shirting weight. Possibly the sleeve will get a small pleat instead. The possibility of a mesh pocket in the front darts is being explored. It would be a place to stick thin things, like maybe a passport or a keycard. It would also be a way to vent heat, as the pocket material is going to be mesh.

Y'all may remember the orange blouse with the reflective piping from last year's gear sewing. There was a mesh yoke in the back, under the fashion fabric layer, since the fabric (a crinkle nylon with DWR) was incapable of breathing. It worked out okay, but I mostly wore it in the evenings. It wouldn't be suitable to wear in 100 degree heat (afternoon hiking last year) as the heat had only the one mesh panel and the neckline to vent out through. (The odd remnants of the orange stuff, though, would make a usable pouch for various things.)

As far as purchased gear lately, besides the wonderful beige shorts pictured above, there is a merino knit wool dress from Icebreaker. (I peeked at their site yesterday, and while the gray I got is gone, they still have pink and also a lovely light aqua.) It is a tank style dress, and it's very comfortable. Works with regular bra straps, but not so well with the thin-strap racer back ones. (Bra straps creep into the neckline area.) I styled it with a bright long scarf and wore it to church and to official functions. It's wonderful!