Ever since I was a little kid, I had the habit or repairing and mending things. I don’t know if that’s the result of upbringing, character or both. Generally, I feel that things should not be thrown away easily; waste is an issue, so I try to minimize that. Also, if I already own an item that serves me well, I am more willing to spend time mending it, instead of spending time searching for a new item, that would par with quality and service. That been said, it is very often the case that many items with better functions are out there.
One of the mending cases is the following jacket, which I have had for more than 10 years. It is an everyday jacket that has been worn by both my mother and myself and has withstood time and usage pretty well. A couple of years ago, the ribbing at the cuffs and bottom edge started fraying. This is the part that is machine knit with some elastic in the cotton thread and is more prone to decay with usage and washing. I had it in the back of my mind to fix it; “I should repair the jacket, I should repair the jacket”. You know, the everyday little tasks that usually remain undone in favor of more pressing things.
The past few months have been more stressful than usual, so the reminder of these ‘small tasks’ was becoming a bit annoying. In an attempt to relieve myself from them, I made it a goal to start working. Over the course of 2 and a half months, I managed to work on most of them.
One of the first was this jacket. I had gotten a grey woolen skein for free in one of our local yarn stores, and I was wondering what to do with it. Until I realised that it’s color matched the jacket perfectly. I frantically cast on for the cuffs; a simple 2×2 ribbing would do. I worked two cuffs in the round, in double the amount of length for each cuff. The goal was to fold the knitted cuff in half, fit it over the frayed one and sew in place. For the ribbing of the bottom edge, I worked flat (wow, I hadn’t worked ribbing flat for quite some time now!) and just the length that was needed. In this part, I did not fold in half; that would produce a bulkier result that I wished. Instead, I just fitted it over the existing ribbing and had it sewn in place by my seamstress.
The result is pretty neat! Very comfortable and as good looking as the original. The whole process opened up a new way of considering my store-bought garments. Who would have thought that knitting skills would be so useful in repairing them? xD
