The outside of my Barbour jacket
may as well be made of iron, but the lining is getting all torn up behind the pockets. It must be the keys I carry in them. Recently, when I brought the coat in for wax treatment, I asked about repairing the lining. They could do it, but they wanted $90.
That's a pretty hefty sum of money for a non-essential fix, so I decided to live with the rips.
Then one day I randomly came across an old twin bed sheet in nearly the same plaid for $1.99 at a thrift shop, and I decided to buy it for patch cloth. I realize
the two plaids don't exactly line, but Barbour devotees are always talking about the pride they take in their coat having 'battle scars', so this doesn't bother me a bit.
Every man should know how to do some light sewing, such as this. It took me about an hour to cut the patches, iron over the edges and sew them in. If I had taken this to a tailor, it would have cost me $30 and would have been without my essential jacket for a week, and the weather looks like rain for the next few days. Plus, there's also that good old 'do-it-yourself' satisfaction.
Here's another hidden potential
thrifting secret of mine: When you come across a pair of pants with
a plain hem that are about an inch too long, you can easily make cuffs on them. Simply fold the cloth up, steam into place, and tack stitch at the four points where the seams meet. If you look at tailored pants with cuffs,
that's really all they've done anyway. You just need enough cloth under the hem to do it.
