Mending with patchwork (in progress)

I had a frustrating end of the week capped off with a fever, so my achievements have been limited to things that can be accomplished while lying prone on the couch. Fortunately, English paper piecing is a fun lying-down craft activity!

This is the interior of my favourite spring coat. Note the dramatic tears in the lining!



First I stabilized each tear by cutting a piece of medium-weight fusible interfacing that was bigger than the tear by an inch or so in each direction, slipping it through the tear to the wrong side of the lining, drawing the lips of the tear together, and pressing through a damp cloth. (Now the torn parts are stronger than the lining fabric around them, which is a problem for another time!)

I like Tom of Holland's visible mending projects a lot, though am shy about riotously colourful additions to the outsides of my clothes. Linings, however, are a gift to shy people like me who secretly want brightly patterned stuff but don't want to have to share it with the whole world. So! I cut a few hexagons out of some nice sturdy fabrics and assembled them into a flower, then appliqued it by hand over one of the tears. The most difficult part was taking care to only catch the lining fabric in my stitches, not the exterior fabric or its interfacing.



The other rip is longer, goes all the way to the edge of the lining, and sits beside some weakened spots in the fabric that will tear soon if I don't do something about them. To cover all the compromised real estate, the patch will have to be a kind of tall backwards L shape that spills out onto the hem. I'm feeling better and more ambitious today, so maybe it'll be made out of tumbling blocks!