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Member since 6/9/05
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Posted on: 2/19/21 4:04 PM ET
I am fixing a Pendleton shirt for a customer. There is a hole about the size of a dime in the sleeve and it's too big to just pull the fabric together and sew it, plus the weave wouldn't be strong enough to hold the stitches.

I've decided to patch the shirt and have a similar colored wool piece that I am going to use as a patch. I've trimmed away the straggly threads and I ironed on a piece of fusible interfacing to the back side of the fabric, then cut a hole through the interfacing the size of the hole and then placed the repair fabric behind the hole. The original fabric is still not stable enough to hold the stitches I plan to make. I'm thinking of using a fabric glue on the rim of the hole to stop the fabric from further fraying and allow the stitches of my patch to hold.

Does that seem like a reasonable way to make the repair? Which glue product would I use to do this? (The interfacing alone doesn't seem strong enough.) I've read about Stop Fray, Fray Check, Fabric Fusion, and a couple of others but I can't decide which product is the one for the job. I don't want it to dry real hard but I want it to remain stable. Suggestions?
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Member since 3/24/04
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Posted on: 2/19/21 5:14 PM ET
In reply to mendospot
It probably won't hold.

Assuming this is a worn elbow, and it were mine, I would make turn under the raw edges of the hole, and baste them under. I would make a larger patch, turning and stitching a basic hem to go inside the sleeve and stitch it down, then applique the edges of the original hole down.
All this goes easier if you can split the original underarm seam.
  
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Posted on: 2/19/21 6:24 PM ET
In reply to kayl
doh! Turn it under! Thank you!
  
Member since 12/28/04
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Posted on: 2/19/21 8:41 PM ET
In reply to kayl
This is how I would do it too. A decorative patch is the best way to go. Think of Japanese mending.
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Posted on: 2/19/21 9:59 PM ET
In reply to Nancy K
Or, if you're really good, invisible reweaving. Or my old buddies from my high school uniform blazers, suede elbow patches.
  
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Posted on: 2/19/21 11:11 PM ET
In reply to kayl
I tried it years ago and it was not doable without matching yarn.

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Posted on: 2/19/21 11:18 PM ET
In reply to mendospot
You could borrow some threads from the fabric inside the cuffs, maybe from the back side of the placket. Hubs has a couple of irreplaceable Pendleton shirts; its going to be a sad, sad day when they are totally worn out.
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Posted on: 2/20/21 1:26 AM ET
In reply to Nancy K
There's often somewhere you can scavenge from: hems, plackets, underside of collars, pocket flaps, behind a pocket, inside cuffs... but it's fiddly work.
  
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Posted on: 2/20/21 9:35 AM ET
In reply to kayl
Another vote for invisible reweaving, which would be somewhat easier on a wool shirt than suit fabric. Here is a link to the Frenway French reweaving method: here .

I still have one of the reweaving needles.

(Sorry but the system wouldn't imbed the link)
Annette
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Member since 6/4/15
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Posted on: 2/20/21 9:57 AM ET
I was also going to suggest invisible mending/weaving. I've only used that technique a couple of times many years ago but it sure worked nicely. It's also a skill that pays well. A few years ago we had two small moth holes (about 1/4" each) repaired on one of my husband's very good suits and the repair cost $75.
  
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