Garb Fail: Share your woeful tales

[Butch]

The soles are cracked on the inside?  If so, take off the rubber you have shoe-gooed onto the outside of the soles, and fill the cracked plastic up with shoe goo.  Then, add a new insert to the inside.  Then, glue a piece of leather onto the outside, and finally a new rubber sole on the very outside.  It may seem like a lot of work, but you obviously wish to keep those boots!

Incidentally, I've had tremendous luck with contact cement (Barges or otherwise) when glueing soles onto the outsides of shoes!

Good luck!

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

The Garb fails I have had in the past have been mostly the Decorative belts I wear. One is being repaired, the other is falling apart. I plan to make a new one befofre next season with a stronger fishing line.

AS for actual garb itself, I have not had fails other than losing an Aglet or a few pearls.

[LadyFae]

The Garb fails I have had in the past have been mostly the Decorative belts I wear. One is being repaired, the other is falling apart. I plan to make a new one befofre next season with a stronger fishing line.

AS for actual garb itself, I have not had fails other than losing an Aglet or a few pearls.

Instead of fishing line try wire!

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

I have done wire as well with little luck.

[isabelladangelo]

Even if you pre-wash and pre-shrink wool.... it'll still shrink.  (I have a lovely grey wool cotehardie that is now about 4" too short and *mumble mumble* inches too small for me in my closet...)

There is a way to deal with that but right after you've washed it.   Stretch it out yourself along a table.  Hold the shoulders and the hem with weights and let it dry overnight.  (put a cloth/towel/something fabricy beneath it while it dries)  After 12 hours, hang it up and make sure to stretch it again. Let it dry completely now.  It's a pain but after a couple of times, the wool should stop shrinking and it won't warp the outfit.  (I have to do this with my sweaters!)

However, just washing the wool five times before cutting it out works really well too.  ;-)

[Elennare]

The soles are cracked on the inside?  If so, take off the rubber you have shoe-gooed onto the outside of the soles, and fill the cracked plastic up with shoe goo.  Then, add a new insert to the inside.  Then, glue a piece of leather onto the outside, and finally a new rubber sole on the very outside.  It may seem like a lot of work, but you obviously wish to keep those boots!

Incidentally, I've had tremendous luck with contact cement (Barges or otherwise) when glueing soles onto the outsides of shoes!

Good luck!

No, actually, they're cracked on the outside.  The outer, plastic sole has cracked all the way through, in a whole bunch of little cracks, right across the ball of the foot where it flexes the most.  The inside is fine.

And, alas, filling up the cracks with shoe goo did not work.  The splits won't open up enough to really get the shoe goo in there, and what I was able to get in there just came apart when I tried to wear them.  (Currently there is no rubber glued over the sole, I tried to use the shoe goo instead in this go-round)

I hadn't thought about trying to put leather over them first, though.  I'll have to give that a try. Might make them wearable again, if not waterproof.  Thanks for the thought!

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

Here's what happened when I cut out the pattern based on the size I thought I was:





Here is the final product after my sewing friend helped me tailor it to fit:

[PollyPoPo]

Lady Renee,

That is such a delightful looking outfit.

Just made for kicking up your heels.

Polly

[Elennare]

Well, awesome for being half the size you thought you were?

[lys1022]

Still have those boots in the back of my closet, because I like them so much, but I can't wear them now, and have no idea what I can do to save them.

Take them to a cobbler and have them re-soled?