The Knotted Rose: Mending Broken Things

Yesterday I finally tackled my "mending" pile. One of Grumpy's uniforms was in bad shape and needed attention ASAP before it was put through the wash. 10 minutes was all it took to reattach a button and a name tag that was coming loose. But I was not done yet.

Princess ZaZa had a pile of things that needed attention as well. Her items, however, where not so easily fixed. Bare with me, this is going to be a looooong post....

The porcelain doll was first on the operating table. It was a gift from one of her Great Grandmothers. Great Grandma insisted that the doll was for play and not show. Now I know why. It looks as if someone had pulled the dolls hand off before and fixed it with a rubber band. On closer inspection I discovered it had a rip in the neck as well. On a scale of therapy to mass murderer, how traumatized do you think the princess would be if the head of her doll fell off one day? Yea that needed to be fixed too.

Looks like someone ( I swear it wasn't me!) just used a tourniquet to amputate it's arm off

Stabbed in the jugular with a Lincoln Log

Surgery equipment

First I tucked the raw edge under and secured with stitches far enough apart that they would gather when pulled.

Place the arm in and pull the stitches as tight as possible.

Apply glue in the ridge all the way around and pull stiches tight again.

Tie off and slip the needle back through the fabric to hide the knot and tail. Trim off excess.

I'd say reattachment of the limb was successful.

To repair the neck I started by trimming the broken thread and blind stitching it close.

Start the new stitches several stitches from the opening for a more secure closing.

Don't forget to hide your knot when your done!

With all major boo-boo's mended I saw that most of the ribbons on the dress and bonnet were fraying.

If it frays anymore it will have reverted back to it's natural form...

Wooo Hoo! I have some matching ribbon on hand! There has to be a first time for everything!

Ugh the ribbons were glued on. It took me several minutes for each bow to remove the glue so that I could sew the new ribbons on.

Gluing may be a fast way to stick something to something else but it never lasts as long as sewing.

To keep from sewing the dress to the doll while attaching the ribbons I placed a piece of cardboard between them.

New ribbons attached! I trimmed them to size and sealed the edges to keep them from fraying again. The way I sealed the edges was to run them close to a lighter. Do not actually put the ribbon in the flame as this will catch on fire! Placing it close to the flame will melt the treads with out blacking them. I could have used Fray stop, but it can take a while to dry and The Princesses nap time is only so long.

Almost looks like new!

Trim and sealing the bonnet ribbons as well.

All fixed!

Next a bag that came with a toy cleaning set. Its handles where unraveling when I bought it. I asked the check out clerk if I could get a discount because it was broken. I got an extra 10% off of the already clearance priced toy set! Most times stores will sell broken, but fixable, items, figurines with chips, display items with scratches, at discounted prices to those who ask. This makes it so the store does not take a total lose by having to destroy them.

Cut right before the fraying begins and run through the lighter to seal.

First I cut the straps off and sealed them with the lighter. Using my ever trusty seam ripper I

pulled the seam apart around the broken straps and removed them.

I also pulled all the top stitching out as I was going to be adding more and I didn't want it to look weird.

Pin the straps back in place and top stitch in place.

I top stitched all the way around twice to give it strength and style!

The inside of the outer pockets looked like they were fraying as well.

A little of this and no more fraying!

I was really sad when I had to add this dress to my mending pile. This dress was made for me by my mother when I was The Princess's age in the mid 1980's. It was worn by me, my sister and several of our stuffed animals before the Princess inherited it. She only got to wear it once before I noticed the holes in it after washing.

So, so sad.

But, I can mend it, or rather darn it as is the proper term. (Darn it! LOL) The materials that are needed to darn an item are pretty minimal. A scrap of the original fabric or a piece that comes close to matching. I used white fabric as the dress contained white and the holes were small.

Pin to the wrong side of the dress fabric, covering the holes.

I loaded my sewing machine with white thread and set it to straight stitch the smallest stitch possible.
I outlined the biggest hole first with stitches then stitch back and forth in parallel lines that were close together, but not over lapping. Once the hole is completely covered in stitches going one direction, switch direction and cross all the previously stitched lines in the same manner.