BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Google a tailor?

I've used Irene's Tailoring on Murray Ave, and they were expensive but did the job. Cash only iirc.

The tailor lady at the Farmer's Market beside the Home Depot is pretty cheap, and does good work, but you have to leave it with her and pick it up after. Blue Rose Creations is I think her business name, but she's not online. She sits with the lady that sells the eggs.

@rice rocket: Yeah, that would work, but I suspect not every tailor has experience with "technical garments."

The cleaner/tailor on Walnut Street (a few blocks down from Negley) has replaced a zipper on a different jacket, so I suspect they should be able to handle this, but I'm always open to other suggestions.

@ejwme: She's just around on Saturdays, I assume? I've got no problem leaving the jacket, as I suspect I'll little use for fleece in the coming weeks.

Oh, are fleeces "technical"? They're usually not form fitting or anything.

I could see hole repair needing more/different skills, but seams are pretty standard fare, no?

I've been meaning to find someone who could patch my nice Gore-Tex rain jacket since I tore it when I slid out in the rain back in the winter, so I'm also interested if anyone knows of a place with experience in repairing "technical garments."

The jacket is an earlier version of this, with extended cuffs and thumb loops (almost like fingerless gloves). The seams blew down the arm, through the wrist seams, and into the "glove" area. So, nothing like seam-sealed gore-tex, but not your standard jacket arm seam, either.

I wouldn't call this OT at all. It's a problem common to a lot of cyclists. And even if there's an expert tailor in the east end, that hardly helps those of us north, south or west.

Yeah, she's only there on Saturdays. (Before noon... and not necessarily every Saturday depending on how things on the farm are going). And I'd skip her in the month of December, she makes awesome custom quilts as gifts that are in high demand... Well, unless you want an awesome custom quilt as a gift, but get her the fabric and agree on the pattern early.

Those materials shouldn't be very difficult to sew. Even if the tear goes through both types of material, the old seam lines can be followed or new ones can be made if the tear goes into the middle of the fabric. Anyone with a serger for the seams or even a standard sewing machine should be able to help you out. In terms of working with "technical" material, I've repaired many different items just making sure that the differential is set properly on my serger.

Sorry I don't know of anyone in particular to take the repairs to, but I wouldn't worry about the material being too "technical".

Sorry I don't know of anyone in particular to take the repairs to

Sounds like you volunteered yourself there...

As far as sewing weird stuff Esporta on Neville Island specializes in hockey equipment but I suspect they would sew anything. They fixed up a pair of my hockey pants years ago and they are still holding together.

I posted this somewhere on this board before, but I had a couple of expensive pairs of bib shorts nearly ruined by a rogue velcro strap (on a seat bag I threw out once I realized it was the culprit). Sal at Destilo Tailors--on Shady on the south side of Forward did a fabulous job of sewing patches into them. I think he charged like $10 or $15 a pair or something very reasonable. He did a lot of other tailoring for us as well. Highly recommended.

Sounds like you volunteered yourself there...

Yeah, seriously....

It seams you have a decent amount of options

and in a pinch, never forget that if you have thumbs, a needle, thread, the internet, and motivation, you can likely take care of it yourself for free in 30 minutes or less.

You can also use fabric glue in a pinch if you're not needle-and-thread inclined, and if you're careful get really nice results. My cousin made beautiful drapes using fabric glue - nobody knew until my grandmother was left alone in there for 5 minutes and started inspecting things, found the glue, and started laughing.

I have a bad habit of volunteering myself for things that in theory I'd like to do, but in reality don't have the time. Between work and a backlog of sewing orders I can't take on new projects until the end of summer. But if it's still ripped at that point drop a line!