Posted by Katie Elder on December 03, 2000 at 14:49:26:
In Reply to: Re: torn shutter curtain posted by Les on December 02, 2000 at 19:16:08:: a company called Bostick & Sullivan makes a bellows repair kit. It's designed for patching pinholes and larger spots in the bellows and still be able to fully collapse the bellows. You might want to give them a call.
well, here's what I did: I cut a piece of Johnson &
Johnson's Waterproof First Aid tape to the correct width and used
that to join the two pieces of fabric. It has a similar weight and
feel as the shutter curtail fabric. Used an exacto knife to
cut.
Then I used scotch tape to tape the shutter curtain to a
grid-marked cutting board, like for using a rotary cutter to cut
quilt fabric.
This let me make sure the curtain was correctly positioned, with
the torn portion squared up before I attempted the mend.
After positioning the first aid tape (almost thought of trying
black electrical tape, but this seemed better as it seemingly has a
fabric base to it), I went to my sewing maching. I set the stitch
to the widest
zig zag available, and put the stitch length not quite on zero, but
close. Then I hand turned the clutch wheel instead of using the
power foot control to very, very slowly stichtch from the edge of
the tear, across the taped patch to the edge of the 1/30 cut-out
slit.
I worked hard to not put too many stiches on top of each other so
that the additional weight of the patch would not interfere with
the movement of the curtain. I just finished reassemblying
everything and testing.
Cross your fingers/we'll see how long this works. But unless it
were too bulky or otherwise intereferred with the curtain's
movement, I think it should hold and in fact be stronger than it
was.
I should have taken a picture of the repair, but hopefully this
description is enough should someone have to replicate.