This summer has claimed 3 expensive pairs of shorts due to various reasons. 1 brain dead moment, 1 assult and 1 velcro rub. Anyone have any tricks on how to sew/repair lycra. I am not sure if thread will hold, but I do have some iron-on patches.
Thanks in advance
Let me know if you ever figure it out. The one place that I took my shorts to (their website said they do repairs) said that they’re not set up to do lycra/spandex. Bummer.
If it’s as easy as an iron-on patch I’ll just do it myself.
wouldn’t an iron patch melt the lycra? i’ve never put iron-on patches on anything but jeans but they had to be pretty hot to get sticky
you can sew a patch over the hole, but it works best if you use a specific type of thread and stitch…
Get a patch of similar looking lycra larger than the original hole (you can harvest that from an old pair of shorts), pin it flat to the hole, use a zig-zag stitch (available on most basic machines) and zig-zag a couple of times around the edges of the patch, as well as a number of times across the body of the patch-- like mending a sock.
Should be pretty invisible if you place the patch on the inside of the fabric next to the skin, but if you are prone to chafing you can put the patch on the outside.
What Ziva said. My wife patched a 2-3" diameter hole in my favorite early 1990’s real chamois padded shorts using exactly this technique. Worked like a charm, no chafing etc. Now if they would only start making shorts with real chamois again…
Cheers
I am not an expert but I would think stitching a patch on would cause the fabric to end up ripping unless the stitching was done on a reinforced area like where the seams are.
As long as the whole is not in a critical spot I have had no problem just sewing the whole closed with regular thread. Works great for me. May not look all smooth like original but I could care less as long as everthing is still held in place and padded.
Nope, generally doesn’t happen. The reason one uses a zig-zag stitch is because the z-z can expand and contract with movement, so the fabric won’t tear. Think of the fabric of the patch itself acting as a reinforcement.