No, it's not a power meter or new video game connected to your glasses to finally your dependence to the digital world. This is comes from the world before analog was real. I had been looking for ages to find an easy way for a guy to repair stuff that ripped. I recently paid $30 to have a shoe shop put a couple of stitches into a saddle bag where a leather loop came loose and a seam had come apart. It's almost insulting to have to rely on somebody else for such a repair.
I found a gadget called the "Speedy Stitcher" on (where else?) the Rivendell website.
It's a fantastic repair device made to repair materials as heavy as harness leather.
It's been made exactly the same way in the US for over 100 years by the same family and works as well as it did before radio was invented. I tried it first to apply a patch to a bag. You know glues never hold up. A corner of the patch gets pulled and the patch inevitably comes loose.
This time I used some "Shoe Goo" to bond the patch in place,
squashed it between a couple of good sized books to set the glue,
and put a couple of stitches in each corner. The needle pushes a generous amount of thread through both materials quite easily. Following the directions, it takes a little common sense and practice to create and tie off a lock stitch with the heavy waxed cotton thread. Bingo, it's on there! Probably forever. I used it to fix a split seam on a glove and I expect the thread to hold longer than the rest of the glove. It's such a perfect solution you would never look for it. It's available at a lot of retail outlets, I just happened to see it on Riv's website. The tool, waxed thread and needles can be found at most fabric shops, but if you are a guy, beware. A guy by himself in a fabric shop is generally ignored and gets lost. The staff will assume you are wandering aimlessly to pass the time while your SO is shopping. You have to be assertive to get anybody's attention. However you get it, it's worth it. Now you can fix your belts, shoes, gloves, tents, bags and whatever in few minutes of TV time.
Hey, that's very handy. I have a few bags around the house that I'd love to make little modifications to, but didn't think it was worth the cost or bother to have a luggage or shoe shop do it. This might be just the thing.
ReplyDeleteIt's really cool. I've been fixing things left and right, gloves, belts a corner of a chair as well as adding patches to bags. I wish I'd had one years ago.
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