Shmersh

I posted the other day about the first rip I found in the quilt I wanted to enter in a quilt show: it was a fairly easy to fix seam area, easy to disguise. Well, I took the quilt down to my sewing room and was dismayed to find another rip, this one like a snip in the fabric. Not sure how it happened; it's L shaped and about a half inch each side. Here's a link to the problems:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shmersh...7629824237321/

The one solution I've heard was to put a piece of the same fabric under it and stitch it down. I had been thinking some kind of fusible stuff under it. I can't see how this would not leave an obvious repair.

I'm pretty bummed, at least from the standpoint in submitting it to a quilt show. It's the first quilt I designed and completed using design software. I'm going to try to find someone around where I live who has experience with restoring or repairing quilts to see if there's any hope. One thing is the areas are very close to each other. The thought has crossed my mind to put some kind of an appliqué over it, although I don't appliqué and I can't envision anything that wouldn't change the look of the overall quilt adversely. Anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks,
Shawn

bearisgray

Do you have any of that fabric left?

If you do, you could match the area with that fabric and applique a patch over the tear. Yes, it will look patched, but if you do it carefully, most people would have to look long and hard for it.

Or you could do a careful darn with matching thread and then put fray chek (or something similar) over the repaired area.

JustAbitCrazy

There is a product made just for fixing tears. It is called Bo Nash, and I recently used it. It is a powder that you sprinkle over the backside of the tear after you have perfectly aligned all the threads involved in the tear. Then you put a patch of the identical fabric overtop of that (still on the back side) and iron it down with a pressing sheet which comes with the Bo Nash (and is like an applique pressing sheet.) It works very well to mend the tear in a nearly invisible way, although the mended area does get a bit stiffer than it was before. I have also heard of people doing the same thing with a patch of fusible web on the backside of the tear, but I've not done that and can't testify to how it holds up in the long haul. The Bo Nash is supposed to be a forever fix. You do have to wait a bit (2 hours, if I remember right) after the fusing before you "wear the garment" (or put the quilt on a frame, I suppose. I remember I waited to do that.)
With either of these repairs you need access to the backside of the torn fabric, so I don't know if that involves removing any quilting stitches for your tear. If so, they will have to be "re-quilted" after the repair is done.
Good luck to you! I think if you can make a nearly invisible mend, you should be able to enter the quilt in a show. It probably wouldn't even be discovered.
BTW, the L shaped snip might be from hitting the folded fabric with the rotary cutter when you are cutting other fabric and the folded fabric is laying closeby, near where you made the the end of your cut. (Does that sound like the voice of experience? I was SURE it was far enough away...)

Tartan

If possible, I would replace the fabric pieces. If you carefully pick out the seams with your stitch ripper, most of the time you can get a new piece in without too much trouble. If that is not a viable option, I would fuse a matching piece of the fabric under the fabric and see how it looks then. Perhaps then quilt well over the mended area? You could add an applique or embroidered piece over the mend if you could get something that you liked also. I'm so sorry that your top has some problems.