Saving a Vintage Velvet Coat

January 2019:  Q. Smith asked if there was a way to save the pocket of her vintage velvet coat.  The tear was such that it would have to be Frankenstitched.  So, as neatly as I could, I turned under the edges.  

Then, I started mocking up a way to hide the repair.  I came up with a bow.

The next day, Q. went out to B&J Fabrics and bought a velvet in a similar color.

I made the bows by sewing a tube into a circle and gathering at the center. Then I covered over the center with a piece of the velvet

Next, I sewed those bows onto the jacket and Voila!  The repairs are hidden and it's super cute.  If I remember correctly, I then made and replaced the covered buttons with rest of the velvet.

Restoring a Leather Jacket

 In July 2021, one of my pals asked if I could save her vintage leather jacket.  

I checked all the seams for disintegrating thread.  Leather doesn't get pinned, it gets clipped to not puncture the skin.  Clips can be purchased at Wawak or even Amazon.   They are also great for quilting and hems.

Over the next few days, I used old rags, rubber gloves and 2 bottles of  Leather Honey leather conditioner and saved the leather.  The jacket sucked up the 1st bottle!

And here is the almost final reveal, because I did go back and touch up a few spots.

Repairing a sweatshirt and making it cute

 My friend Jackie Sanders, who I worked with on Cowgirls back in 1996, has a sweatshirt that she loves, but had gotten a bit holey.  I had been working with decorative repairs and hoodie lining, so we decided to play.  The ribbing was replaced and Jackie picked a jersey and I got to stitching.  
Going along with my quest to reduce, reuse, recycle, the jersey was a t-shirt that was purchased from Thred-up.  The ribbing came from  Fabric Made.

This is the final result.  Jackie was extremely pleased and her husband  Bill Hayes dubbed me "The Jazz Seamstress"!

I actually shot a video on lining the hoods on sweatshirts....oh, at least a year ago.  I really should edit that!

Repairing Embroidered Chiffon

 

Can you find the repair in the embroidered chiffon?

This picture has the needle showing you the one end. It is single thread weaving and tiny stitches. The trick to make it hidden? If you can, start from one embroidery point to another.

Sometimes, you can't.  So, just find an anchor point to make it look organic.

Pants, Wardrobe Malfunctions, and Going Viral.

Here are a few articles/interviews I did about the pants:

    Broadway World

    The story got picked up on the Canadian Newswire

     And a shout out from Iatse

How to reglue the loose rubber on your shoes

Replacing a fur collar

Today's tutorial is no machine required. It's all hand sewn! The fur on my grandmother's coat didn't survive me washing it, so I replaced it with faux fur. I bought the faux fur at the Fabric warehouse in Rahway, NJ ( https://fabricwarehouse.business.site/​ ). Their address is 970 New Brunswick Ave, Rahway, NJ 07065. I've been shopping there for years and the people are really nice.

Ripped hem repair

You never want to see this come down after the show!

During one of the performances of "You Can't Take It With You", Annaleigh Ashford put her heel thru her hem.  It happens.  This is how I repaired it.

I first made a muslin patch and using small stitches on the machine, used the zigzag stitch to anchor it down.  Then, I cut away the excess.

Next, I hand stitched parts of it down, like the trim.

It looked like this close up.


And further away, it looked like this.  One would never know what happened from stage!