Iron on adhesive

 Iron on adhesives are often used in applique, but are also very useful for mending.

It’s easy to use and fast.

All you really need is a hot iron and a piece of adhesive and a fabric patch and a hole or a stain to cover.

Cut out a patch of your choosing and cut a similar price of adhesive.

Put it on top of your hole or stain with the adhesive in the middle

Iron it in place. Make sure you don’t iron it stuck to your garments or ironing table. I use the kind of paper you also use for baking underneath.

And you are done. You can of course choose to stitch on top if you like to.

I often feel it looks unfinished only ironing it on. But you don’t have to do anything else about it if you don’t want to.

 It also works well if you have a garment that is very fragile like my wool shirt that just made new holes when I tried to repair it. 

I used a under layer from an outgrown woolshirt from Jr. 

And just iron on adhesive attached it to the inside of the shirt. Preventing it from falling apart while stitching on it. 

Water Soluble Embroidery Stabiliser.

 Water Soluble Embroidery Stabiliser.

I have had a few questions about how I to use the water Soluble Embroidery stabiliser.

It’s quite easy.

You find a pattern you want to use, and put the embroidery stabiliser on top and draw with a pen after the lines.

I have a book with different patterns, or I look for something online.

Often I Google coloring pages as they are easy to copy.

When you have drawn your pattern, pin the stabiliser to the place you want to embroidery. 

Then just embroidery as usual over both the fabric and the stabiliser. It feels a bit odd to stitch through the stabiliser but I promise you the end result will be great.

It’s also very handy if you have a delicate fabric, making it more stable and easier to stitch. Like the dragon I stitch on my sisters shirt for mendmarch.

When you are finished with your embroidery it’s just to put your work under the tap and let running water do the job.

Much easier than using see-through paper like I did earlier, as it is tricky to remove and it would tear while you stitch. And often makes your embroidery a little too loose.

Reverse applique in mending

 How to use reverse applique in mending

Reverse applique is a fun technique that gives you a little special finish.

It can also be used in mending.

Reverse applique is when you add layers of fabric underneath the original fabric, not on top like in applique. Revealing the underlying fabric as a feature.

You might have tried this technique and even not realised it was reverse applique. Having a under patch that is visible.

You can choose to have as many layers of fabric you like, but I do recommend one or two for clothes as it will be very thick and stiff.

For the singlet I mended, I used one layer.

The shorts have two

Before you start you need to find out what kind of pattern you want to use. And if it will fit your mending project.

Depending on what kind of fabric your garment are made of you might want to add backing to prevent it from fraying.

My singlet is Jersey fabric and so it’s not fraying.

And it’s really easy and fun to work with.

So instead of just fixing the one hole I did make it a upgrade.

Used a triangle that is really to make some sort of macrame with, as a template. Making sure the hole fitted into one of the holes.

Using a water dissolveing fabric marker to draw the pattern.

Using a piece of an t-shirt as a underlayer.

I cut it a bit bigger and trimmed it when I was finishing.

Pinned it in place making sure it covers my pattern on the front.

Then I stitch around the drawed lines.

You can do it by hand or machine.

I hand stitched using embroidery thread on this singlet

When you are finished it’s time to find a sharp scissor and a keep a steady hand. Cutting out the top layer. Close to the edge, but not so close you will cut the seam.

Since I used a bigger underlayer than the pattern, I had to trim it to size.

And then it’s ready to wear.

With the denim shorts I started with cutting Making clean edges around the hole.

Using two pieces of fabric for the underlayer. A bit bigger than the hole so it will be room for stitching around.

Using a woven fabric securing edges with iron on backing. You can also use Zigzag stitch or a serger if you like. The vintage lady was a delicate and thin fabric so I chose Iron one backing.

I often see people skipping this step, and I still remember how annoying I thought my mum was when she thought me to sew, nagging about Zigzagging around the edge before sewing. It was so boring, right?

So I learned the hard way it’s even more boring to have put a lot of time and effort into something and it’s ruind because I was lazy and skipped this step. Because if you don’t secure the edges the fabric will fray, and your efforts will have been a waste.

I pinned the two pieces of fabric in place and hand stitched around the edges.

No scary cutting after you have been stitch if you do it this way.