Mending travel pants

As usual, just as I was about to open the October meeting of the WES Group, I checked my phone for last minute apologies or messages, only to see, on the screen, a message from my friend Ken: I think we are close to "end of life treatment".

My heart almost stopped as I opened the message, to find it was accompanied by the photo on the left.  He was referring to his travel pants, which I have mended numerous times before!

End of life? The message took a few minutes off mine, but the trousers will continue for a while yet  if I have anything to do with it!

I picked them up last week after eating the very good Vegetable Bake with Sausages, that Ken had cooked (with many questions about temperature and timing). The next day I dug out some of the batik I have used before for the same purpose. Placing a large piece on the inside of the pants, I machined around the tear on the outside, then appliqué the piece down on the inside. The original orange cotton is too thin to patch the outside only.

I could then patch the outside with more of the batik fabric, matching the pattern to where I'd patched last time.

Unfortunately, there is wear and tear on other parts of the trousers as well, particularly the waist and the cuffs.

These took more thought, and a good deal of bias tape, which I happened to have in a reasonable colour match.

I added a bias tape edge to the cuffs, and triangles of batik to the seam, where the stitching was pulling apart and fraying.

The wear at the waist was a a bit more of a challenge, with three rows of elastic to contend with. However, the bias tape fitted neatly over each row of elastic, so I stitched it by hand over the front section of the waistband, which was the most worn. (top 2 sections on photo on left show before, bottom section shows fix).  Ken has suggested hanging the trousers on the wall as an exhibit. While I can go on adding batik patches to the whole of the original fabric until there is no more orange left, I admit the wear around the waist has me worried.

The current fix will suffice for a few more wears but I'm not sure how possible or effective it will be to cover the whole waistband should it continue to wear, which, of course, it will.

My granddaughters think this is a definite improvement on the original orange - but that I should teach Ken how to mend them himself!

I’m always up for a challenge, but that, I think, is beyond my skill level! 

Impossibilities? Certainly. Miracles ? Probably not.