2025 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

itsthelittlethings

Gosh Cherryfudge - how annoying! I should be quite tempted to whack him every time I saw him tucking his shirt in! Once a day will do. The only thing I can think of is to repurpose for cleaning clothes or patch with something sturdy. If it’s at the back where he’s tucking it is it won’t be visible so you could get away with quite a garish patch! Tell him to keep his jacket on. On hot days he can wear his best shirts - not that I think we will really have any hot days for a while.

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

Sorry to veer off-topic, but I'm hoping your collective knowledge and imagination might come up with a way of saving/repurposing some shirts.

My husband loves linen shirts but seems to be rather too vigorous about tucking them in, so there are now three with a hole in the shirt tail! Of course that means wear and tear on the surrounding fabric, so unless back-baring shirts become the fashion, they won't be worn again. The top half of the backs seems okay, and so does the rest of each shirt.

Any bright ideas how to deal with this? Either to make them re-wearable or to repurpose the fabric? They are all different colours so I can't use one to patch another.

P.S. My son's lovely partner seems to have fixed my sewing machine! For years I've struggled with it and it seems it left the factory over-tightened in several places. It's now making even stitches without loops on the back. I might even be able to use it to sew shirts!

@Cherryfudge, please share some photos of the shirt backs (maybe with a pillow stuffed inside for contrast), then we’ll be able to give you some guidance.

Also, remind me, how tall is your husband?  

- Pip

kiwisavings

Thanks for the suggestion of trying baking soda to remove stale fabric smells @maryb, @PollyWollyDoodle, I will give this a go once the rainy springtime weather sorts itself out. 

@Cherryfudge, I was wondering if splicing some different coloured fabric at the bottom of the shirts would work? Sort of like this:

Cherryfudge

@PipneyJane and @kiwisavings, thank you both. I will try to get a photo up tomorrow. Kiwisavings, unfortunately the shirts are damaged in exactly the same place (I think he must jab his fingers in to tuck them in) so I can't easily use part of one shirt to fix another, though if I could match the fabric it might work. They are office work shirts so it would look a bit odd if they didn't match! 

CapricornLass

Are the shirt tails shaped at the bottom?  If the holes are small, you might get away with cutting the shirt so its the same length all round, rehemming that, and then using the cut off bit to make patches.

Cherryfudge

You can see that when he makes a hole, he makes a big hole!

He is about 5'7" by the way.

itsthelittlethings

I would get another piece of grey and sashiko is on but it won’t be an invisible mend.

moginstein

TLDR - sometimes, you just have to try stuff, and see what happens.
**Sorry for the long post, feel free to ignore**

Hello all.

Well, I've had my first go at "project bath sheet conversion" (I have a bath sheet I'm not using, and could use some extra hand towels). I cut the bath sheet in half long ways, then took one half and cut it in half again the other way. Only tackling 1 quarter to start, in case there are bits I learn along the way. Hope you don't mind me sharing, I thought it might be useful for anyone looking at doing similar.

Observations. 

Having lines in the towels does make it easier to work out where to cut, but it will probably show up mistakes too! (so swings and roundabouts).

Ironing it to get a crease to cut along didn't work, as the pile made it move. I did it by eye when it was between the blue lines, and the other direction I folded and marked the blue bits with tailors chalk, then joined the dots with a ruler. (if you don't have tailors chalk, you can sometimes use soap slithers - the end bits of soap, which also wash out, obs!)

Using a walking foot seemed like a good idea (it is meant to help with thicker fabrics, as it pushes the layers through together) but I didn't like the effect it was giving me. I had to make the zigzag narrower (so it didn't smash into the side of the foot), and this meant that I wobbled off the edge, and it didn't "catch" as wide an area.

The wider zigzag on the standard foot seemed to work better, but I might have to adjust the spacing (3) down a bit (more zigzags per cm) to make it tighter.

Standard towels seem to have the last turned hem on the narrow end (top and bottom) so I tried to do that. I'm only doing 2 of the 4 sides though, as I'm using the original edges for the other 2. You don't have to do them in that order, you can just fold them in that order.

I sewed the zigzag with the centre point where I folded it over, and it seems to have "smushed" it together as I wanted. It's barely noticeable on the white, so I think it looks okay.

This is just the first go though, so I am intending using it for a little bit, and seeing how it washes. I might need a higher "stitching density" if it starts to unravel!


ETA - Just on the line now, and it needs more zigzags per cm, unravelled a bit...

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

You can see that when he makes a hole, he makes a big hole!

He is about 5'7" by the way.

Sadly, I can see other weak places further up the back, @Cherryfudge, possibly where his back rubs against his office chair.   Linen is lovely, but its durability depends on the weave, and there is a spot just below his right shoulder blade that looks quite thin.

Turning to the problem immediately at hand, would you get enough coverage if you just folded the tail up and stitched it down?  Would there be enough of a tail left for him to tuck in the shirt without it riding up/spilling out every 5 minutes?  Presumably, the top of the hole is level/slightly below his trouser waistband.  If the answer is "yes", then I go with the simplest option and fold up the tail inside the shirt, stitch it down and then zig-zag stitch over the edges of the tear, using a near-as-possible matching thread.  (Give everything a good iron first, to ensure it's all flat.)

To prevent these holes happening on his remaining intact shirts, you may want to add a layer of iron-on interfacing, carefully stitched/attached at the edges, but I'm not certain how comfortable/invisible that will be. 

HTH

- Pip 

MrsCD

3 coupons spent...I was bewitched by the autumnal colous of the Lidl sock yarn a couple of weeks ago. I think I might make a lacy crochet shawl with it.