The Three R’s

When I was growing up, I was told about the three R’s – Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. I never really understood that, lol! As an adult, my three R’s are Reuse, Recycle and Repair. As you have seen in previous posts, I don’t like to waste anything, so when my friend asked me to repair a sleeping bag I said, “absolutely”. Little did I know how big a job this was going to be.

My friend, Mike has had this sleeping bag for over 30 years and it has been well used. The inside flannel lining was ripped in several places. I decided to put a new lining on it, but I didn’t remove the original lining; I just put the new lining over the old one.

This is one of the large rips in the flannel.

I used a temporary basting spray to attach the old flannel so it wouldn’t fold over and cause a lump under the new flannel, then safety pinned the flannel in place like I was pinning a quilt. It took me a couple of hours, but it was well worth it.

Initially, I was thinking of putting the sleeping bag on the long arm, but I ended up using the fabulous Janome Continental M7 sewing machine. It was fantastic for the bulky sleeping bag because of the huge throat space. 13.5″ to the right of the needle!

Not to mention, the dedicated motor for the AcuFeed feeding system meant that all the thickness of the sleeping bag would go under the needle with ease. One of the impressive features is that the Janome Continental M7 can sewing through over 8 layers of denim, so I thought the sleeping bag wouldn’t be an issue – and I was right! Oh, and yes, I have stitched through 8 layers of denim on this machine because I had to see for myself if it would actually do it. It went through just like butter.

I started sewing from the middle of the sleeping bag so the flannel wouldn’t shift, following the original stitching lines which held all the layers together.

I sewed on the outside of the sleeping bag so couldn’t see the pins I had used to hold the flannel in place. I kept one hand on top and one underneath to ensure I didn’t sew over a pin and to keep the flannel flat.

Once all the center line stitching was complete, I folded the outside edges under and sewed in place.

While it took a lot longer than I thought, it was a job well done. Just wait until Mike gets my bill! Haha!

Happy Sewing!