I’m sure you’ve been wondering if I fell off the face of the earth—after you read this, I may leave!
I had the absolutely worst disaster you (and me both) can imagine and I’ve been beside myself how to tell you. I was so proud of how the repair was going on the swimsuit—had used tweezers to pull down some of the tiny fabric threads on a couple areas that were starting to pucker and fray (heading to a full-out fray that would be loose like the section needing fixed). I had also perfectly matched the thread color for the area I needed to reattach, removed the stitching, and also perfectly matched the stitch length to re-sew that segment. The end result would be that from the right side, you would see continuous top-stitching (the new stitching blending with the old), and the puckers (future fraying) would also be gone, as near to new as I could get it.
The disaster came when I was pressing inside on the waist seam. I use a mini clover iron that has a 1” pie shape sole plate at the end of a rod to get into tiny spaces and had covered what I was pressing with a small piece of tissue paper (using it as a press cloth). So far so good, had finished pressing and then touched my finger with the tip. In reflex I jerked my finger back and thought to myself, ‘whew! At least I didn’t touch the nylon bodice!’ So I went back to the sewing machine to lay it out and look it over for the next step, and literally screamed when I saw the belly area of the nylon was gone! I can’t tell you how sick I feel about this and have checked with all my friends with doll shops, friends in my doll club, many places online that sell vintage and have not been able to find a replacement for you. So all I can do to be fair is to pay you for the swimsuit. I want to reimburse you since now you no longer have an item to sell. So please let me know how much and I can paypal you right back—I expect you to be fair to yourself, somewhere between cost and selling price. And should you decide you don’t want to send me any more repairs, I can’t blame you.
As for me, that little disaster is going to be pinned on the wall above my workspace as a constant reminder of what damage a micro-second can do! I’m just so sorry for this. It was purely an accident that’s never happened before. After wallowing in this for a couple days (trying to find a replacement, trying to figure out how to tell you, and wondering how I could prevent something like this in the future), I’ve designed a small “pressing cover” to cover the tip on my Mini Iron. It will act not only as a press cloth (no more tissue paper or small pieces of fabric to act as a press cloth), but it will also protect my fingers.
Regretfully,
Shirley
Return to Tip # 2: Too Hot to Handle