Repairing a jumpsuit

[rasmack 0]

OK, freshly home from my first trip to the tunnel. My trusty old RW suit thought it was bit rough, though. I have reinforcements on the knees (cordura?) but the fabric tore cleanly at the seam above the reinforcement (see picture). How should I go about fixing this? Put on a cordura patch?

It goes without saying that I don't want to shorten the length of the front length as that will only increase the tension from the booties. I am also a bit wary that any stitching I do in the not-so-strong fabric might contribute to tearing it. Any suggestions are welcome.

My legs are rather wide btw, so it is actually possible to get down there with a sewing machine.

HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

[riggerpaul 1]

It won't exactly be pretty, but if you can find good color matches, it won't be so bad.

Open up all the seams in the area of the damage, and add new fabric to get the various pieces back to the original dimensions.

Then put it all back together.

It is often more work than you would like. But that's the reliable way to fix it so it is not just going to be trouble from now on.

In the interest of making it look as good as you can, it is likely that you will replace more material than you originally expected. But at least you won't have odd looking patches to piss you off forever.

[rasmack 0]

OK, I'm trying to understand how "adding new fabric" is not the same as "sewing on a patch". Do you mean that the patch should not just be sewn on to the fabric but be integrated into the seams of the area? If so, I guess I could just put it on the inside and reduce the colour clashes to threads across the fabric... or is that uglier?

HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

[riggerpaul 1]

Quote

OK, I'm trying to understand how "adding new fabric" is not the same as "sewing on a patch". Do you mean that the patch should not just be sewn on to the fabric but be integrated into the seams of the area? If so, I guess I could just put it on the inside and reduce the colour clashes to threads across the fabric... or is that uglier?

I am describing the most thorough way to do the repair. There are simpler ways that will likely not look as good.

But, if you are doing the work yourself, you can spend as much or as little time as you like, and the dollar cost doesn't change.

Personally, I like to fix things to as close to original condition whenever I can. Some people don't want to pay for that, so I either do it the quick way or ask them to take the work to someone else.

What I am saying is that you want to see the pieces of the original construction and make them whole again.

When you put it back together, you end up at the original design.

Maybe that means you replace the entire piece in some cases.

Yes, that means incorporating the new material into the original seams that were opened in the process.

You could just patch it from behind, if you like, and if you really can get the machine in there (or you want to do it by hand).

But then you have that frayed fabric that isn't going to look nice, and will probably fray more and maybe tear in the wind.

You could do a bunch of criss-cross stitching across the frayed area to stabilize it, but it still might not look too good.

Or, you can just slap a patch over the whole area. But that won't look like the original.

It is all a question of how much effort you are willing to put into it.

[rasmack 0]

OK, sounds like I'm reconstructing up to 5 inches or so above the reinforcement. I found a pretty tough fabric that is fairly close to the original colour. I'll just tell myself it looks cool.

Thanks.

HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

[riggerpaul 1]

Can't do better than that.

Good luck. Be patient. You'll do fine.