Repairing damage to second-hand clothes - a blue skirt hem of embroidery eyelet circles, 602

 Delicate eyelets and lace may have hanging threads or missing sections.

Repair needed for damaged hem on blue skirt. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The Blue Linen Skirt

The skirt has the label Minuet. the fabric is linen with a cotton liner. The colour is blue.The skirt has an invisible nylon zip.

The Repair Needed

I bought this from the Cancer Research shop in Ilkley, Derbyshire, England. The skirt wasn't marked as damaged, nor 'as seen'.

 Sometimes, if the assistant is benevolent, and you are buying several items, the assistant might make a reduction if you point out a fault.

However, once I was at the large Tesco supermarket in Borehamwood, north west London, when I pointed out a fault at checkout, the assistant snatched the beloved item away and said, 'We can't sell it to you'. 

I was upset. I asked, 'What are you going to do with it?'.

She said the supermarket would give it to a charity shop. 

So, in a charity shop I have the same fear, that the assistant will say, 'We can't sell it to you'. Instead, they might send it to recycling.

At Ilkley, I was in a hurry to meet family and friends for lunch, so, after some hesitation, I simply bought the item.

On looking at it closer, some days later, I first thought of trying to sew it up the circles with similar coloured threat. 

On second thoughts, after looking at the photo a day later, I am wondeing whether it would be quicker and neater to simply cut off the two threads which originally formed part of a circle. Would anybody else ever notice?

I looked at the inside hems to see if I could find spare fabric or hanging cotton. No luck.

I went back to the circle to see whether I could link up the two hanging threads. i dieded to tie them together. I did. Instead of cutting off the loose ends, I spiralled them around the thin part of the circle. I had in mind fastening the two ends with clear nail varnish. However, temporarily, saliva seemed enough to make the whole thing stick into a a circle well enough.

As for the completely missing circle, I don't think anybody will notice. In theory, I could have cut off all the empty circles. or filled them with contrasting fabric, red, or gold, or black, or a mixture, as a feature.

The join is so good that I could not identify the mend to photograph it and show it to you.

Useful Websites

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/get-involved/find-a-shop

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