Sharpie to the rescue!
I'm short.
Five feet, no inches.
And wide.
Size sixteen wide.
I can fit into size fourteen, but I'm thick-waisted and I like to continue breathing when I sit down.
Anyway....when I buy new pants, (that's trousers, not underpants!) I always have to take up the hems by four to six inches.
Recently, I did this with two pairs of new black pants for work.
After a few washes, I noticed the black thread I'd used had faded to grey, (what's with that? never happened before..) making the stitches much more noticeable.
Not such a good look, although I think I'm the only one who has noticed.
But I'm most certainly not going to unpick and resew them, I had enough trouble the first time!
My eyesight isn't what it used to be, black on black is hard to see, plus it took me longer to thread the needle than do the actual sewing.
So what did I do?
Sharpie to the rescue! The laundry marker kind, with the ink that doesn't wash off.
I lightly touched each stitch, making them once again indistinguishable from the black pants fabric.
See that? Pretty good if I do say so myself.
Sharpie's are also good for covering scuff marks on school and work shoes.
Colour them in with the Sharpie, then polish as usual.
It doesn't work on patent leather though, that stuff is just too shiny.
Small scuffs and nicks in patent leather can be fixed with shavings of a matching coloured wax crayon smoothed into the nick or scuff with a hot knife and levelled off.
Five feet, no inches.
And wide.
Size sixteen wide.
I can fit into size fourteen, but I'm thick-waisted and I like to continue breathing when I sit down.
Anyway....when I buy new pants, (that's trousers, not underpants!) I always have to take up the hems by four to six inches.
Recently, I did this with two pairs of new black pants for work.
After a few washes, I noticed the black thread I'd used had faded to grey, (what's with that? never happened before..) making the stitches much more noticeable.
But I'm most certainly not going to unpick and resew them, I had enough trouble the first time!
My eyesight isn't what it used to be, black on black is hard to see, plus it took me longer to thread the needle than do the actual sewing.
So what did I do?
I lightly touched each stitch, making them once again indistinguishable from the black pants fabric.
Sharpie's are also good for covering scuff marks on school and work shoes.
Colour them in with the Sharpie, then polish as usual.
It doesn't work on patent leather though, that stuff is just too shiny.
Small scuffs and nicks in patent leather can be fixed with shavings of a matching coloured wax crayon smoothed into the nick or scuff with a hot knife and levelled off.
.png)
SSSShhhhhh don't tell anyone but I've done this I think it steamed from when my mom left me with my grandad, I was wearing check trousers, and he and I used black pens to colour in the white squares. His excuse to my mom when she got annoyed (and rightly so), was 'well it kept her quiet and out of trouble'. lol.
ReplyDeleteI'll make a mental note of that solution.
ReplyDeleteYou clever old fox, you!
ReplyDeleteUh oh! Stray apostrophe in there...just ignore that would you please?
ReplyDeleteThe Wicked Writer; that's a great way to keep a kid quiet. Were you wearing the pants at the time and did you get little black squares on your skin?
Delores; Sharpies come in handy for so many things.
Kath Lockett; I started doing this when the kids scuffed their school shoes, way back before Sharpies came to Australia. Back then we had those thick textas that actually were black, black, black. Now they're a watered down black with not nearly as good coverage, because an ingredient has been changed.
I haven't heard of it, but it looks to be very useful. Nice lateral thinking on your part.
ReplyDeleteOr if you have a three year old little girl who seems to drag her feet in every pair of shoes she owns so it's markers to the rescue! They grow out of them too fast to do anything else... :)
ReplyDeleteThey just don't make that thread like they used to1
ReplyDeletewas wearing them, we were using pens, and I don't remember the ink, I do remember the clip around the ear though (as I guess she couldn't exactly give out to much to her dad).
ReplyDeleteBrilliant idea. I am tall and wide so I don't need to take things up. More often I would like to let them down - but there is never enough hem. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine spilled bleach on one of the two maternity dresses which fitted towards the end of her pregnancy. We coloured it in with texta colours. It had to be redone after each wash - but looked fine between washes.
Good idea, the coloured texta has a million uses, Ive even used a black one to touch up scratches on the TOYOTA emblem embossed across the back of my ute
ReplyDeleteAndrew; I'm resourceful that way.
ReplyDeleteJennifer Kay; they seem to grow out of them within a couple of weeks sometimes.
Joanne Noragon; no they don't. I may have to buy the quality stuff.
The Wicked Writer; ouch! the clip around the ear! Not that I've ever had one...
Elephant's Child; make false cuffs and have "designer" pants.
I splashed bleach on something once, and "fixed" it by spattering bleach on the rest of the garment. I overdid it though and the shorts fell apart in the next wash.
Temp; I've used them to cover scratches on my painted furniture, but I can never get the shade just right, so I gave that up.
Good tips! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSo clever!! I love this tip!
ReplyDeletedrb; you're welcome.
ReplyDeleteHappy Elf Mom; you are also welcome.
I've done this on black school shoes that are scuffed! sshhhhh!
ReplyDeleteHaha! I wonder would it work if I'd used staples instead of stitching to change a hem length??!!
ReplyDeleteFarmer's Wifey; that's where I first did it too.
ReplyDeleteRed Nomad OZ; staples might scratch or catch your stockings, but in an emergency they work quite well. But they would show unless you can colour match them.
Ive done that with shoes! They had to be black and they were grey and shitty expensive..
ReplyDeleteWhat IS it with Australian uniform rules? I don't want to sound rude, but being Swedish I find it exhausting and a tiny bit ridiculous.. Sorry, don't hate me :)
//mia
A Swedish Smorgasbord; hate is a very destructive emotion, I've banished it from my life. I'm sure there's a reason for the uniform rules, maybe so that everyone looks uniform? anyway, just buy black shoes instead of grey.
ReplyDelete