My sewing has failed...

I have to admit with some chagrin, the first instance of my sewing failing. Walking along, and .... my bag is on the ground.

2½ years ago, one of the 2 buckles (the prongs on the male part) connecting the shoulder strap to the Messenge’mups broke. Three years of anywhere between 5 to 30 pound loads hanging from those delrin side release buckles - for easily many thousands of hours - that was its limit revealed. (The breakage hierarchy is hardware, thread, webbing and then fabric.)

Since the 2" webbing was sewn right along the entire length of the back, right into the seams, my only option for repair was to hacksaw off the buckle, take a piece of 2" webbing, another buckle and sew it to the existent webbing. Easy. Took my usual approach, a needle and thread and fixed it. Meant to bartack it, but it was put off for so many more pressing, and let’s face it, fun projects.

So, 2½ years of once again, thousands of hours of heavy - way too heavy - loads, and the standard 69# thread gave out. Buckle’s fine. Thread broke.

I've been trying really hard for many years to destroy what I make. I like it and all, but I have to see what it can withstand. And this is without doubt the most strained part of anything I’ve made. The way I do stuff is maybe a bit weird, but I’m still fairly confident in the results.

Good thing I have more than one bag to use till I fix this.

These 43 Brands Will Fix or Replace Anything You Buy From Them — Forever

Good to know. Yes, some of these products are a bit more expensive, but warranties like this are worth it. Two other companies not listed here, that I have gotten superb service from are Brunton and Kifaru.

These 43 Brands Will Fix or Replace Anything You Buy From Them — Forever

The rise of mending: how Britain learned to repair clothes again

Interesting article in The Guardian about the return of mending garments. Explores the multitude of reasons why people are returning to what was once a common practice: repairing your clothing.

The rise of mending: how Britain learned to repair clothes again

When Did Repair Become a Radical Act?

Interesting article from Patagonia (the clothing manufacturer) about repair.

I love repairing things for a variety of reasons: self empowerment, frugality, environmental concerns, growing discomfort with consumer culture.

When Did Repair Become a Radical Act?

Repair Manifesto

Self Repair Manifesto

Maker’s Bill of Rights

• Meaningful and specific parts lists shall be included.
• Cases shall be easy to open.
• Batteries should be replaceable.
• Special tools are allowed only for darn good reasons.
• Profiting by selling expensive special tools is wrong and not making special tools available is even worse.
• Torx is OK; tamperproof is rarely OK.
• Components, not entire sub-assemblies, shall be replaceable.
• Consumables, like fuses and filters, shall be easy to access.
• Circuit boards shall be commented.
• Power from USB is good; power from proprietary power adapters is bad.
• Standard connecters shall have pinouts defined.
• If it snaps shut, it shall snap open.
• Screws better than glues.
• Docs and drivers shall have permalinks and shall reside for all perpetuity at archive.org.
• Ease of repair shall be a design ideal, not an afterthought.
• Metric or standard, not both.
• Schematics shall be included.

By Mister Jalopy, first published in Make: Magazine #04

FM 10–16 General Fabric Repair

Given that the military is pretty much a self contained society, they have need for many of the same skills and trades that society at large requires. Heavy equipment operators, veterinarians, IT techs, cooks, you name it. Consequently the US military has manuals on everything. Besides the obvious war fighting ones, they have really comprehensive overviews of nearly any trade or skill you might imagine. Plumbing, dentistry, logistics, carpentry, road building, etc., etc.

One that I personally have found really useful is FM 10-16 – General Fabric Repair. (scroll all the way to the bottom and there you will find a downloadable PDF.) Pretty much anything you might need to know about keeping clothes and outdoor gear functional. Repair with both machine and by hand. If you spend any amount of time out in the woods, having a hussif and the knowledge of how to keep your gear up and running is very valuable.

Lighterweight Repair Kit

I’ve spoken on here about my efforts to reduce the weight of what I carry around with me. My repair kit seems to have been growing in size and weight for a while now. It all fit into a Kifaru ChamberPocket and consists of the hussif and repair kit, zip ties, a few more stealth repair buckles, a patching kit for inflatable seats and mattresses, a Goretex repair kit, Tenacious Tape, some other stuff I think – it had become altogether too hefty a bundle.

Decided it was time to scale back. The ability to mend everything short of a rift in the space-time continuum is swell and all, but it’s just too much. For a little two nighter hike not too far from home, that amount of stuff is just silly. It could be argued (and probably successfully) that even this is too much stuff. The inner tinkerer in me is a tough beast to tame though. This assemblage of stuff is about 120 grams, a far cry from the 540 grams of my other set up. I think that one will go into the INCH bag.

Two perspectives of the contents. Spiralling clockwise in the top picture, and spiralling counter-clockwise in the bottom picture. 
(Clicking on them will bring up a large picture.)

1. repair ladder lock
2. adjustable stealth buckle
3. 2 repair stealth buckles
4. 1" D ring
5. 2 siamese slik clips
6. cord lock
7. 4.5 cm x 5 cm marpat McNett Goretex repair material 
8. 6.7 cm x 7.5 cm sage green McNett Tenacious Tape 
9. 50 cm of foliage green 43668 webbing
10. 8 cm of 1cm shrink tubing
11. 8 cm of 1.5 cm shrink tubing
12. 8 cm of 2cm shrink tubing
13. OD “Canadian” 2 cm button 
14. 2 OD 4 hole buttons
15. OD “Canadian” 3 cm button
16. 7.5 cm kilt pin
17. 2 5 cm safety pins 
18. 2 3 cm safety pins
19. 5 cm cotter pin
20. 3.2 cm cotter pin
21. 2 1.8 cm cotter pins
22. assortment of needles
23. ?m of slate Coats upholstery thread 
24. ?m of black Coats upholstery thread
25. ?m of chona brown Coats upholstery thread
26. ? m of gun tape
27. 27 mm ID key ring
28. 20 mm ID key ring
29. 9 mm ID key ring
30. 8 mm ID key ring
31. 6 mm ID key ring
32. O ring for Fenix A or AA flashlight
33. 2 15 cm zip ties
34. 3 10 cm zip ties
35. rubber thimble (I always use these for hand sewing)
36. 10 m of 190 lb. cord 
37. 10 m of 96 lb. cord 
38. 10 m of 45 lb. cord 
39. 17 cm x 22 cm piece of OD polyester/cotton blend

I think about the only thing I’m tempted to add to this is a small amount of thin stainless steel wire. There might be some other things I should have in here, and maybe some things I can forego. Time will tell.

Repair Kit

I had an empty Lifeboat Matches container, and found that 200MPH tape encircled it perfectly. Decided to make a repair kit out of it.

Not really sure how much tape is wrapped around it.

1. 200 MPH Tape (duct tape to you civilians)
2. O-Rings
3. Split Rings
4. Eyelet Screws
5. Buttons
6. Safety Pins
7. Bit for Leatherman
8. Misc. Aluminum Rod
9. 3 Needles wrapped in Dental Floss
10. 2 Pins for pack repair
11. 3 Cotter Pins
12. 2 Small Zip Ties
13. Axe Wedge
14. Sharpening Stone
15. Mag-Lite Bulb
16. Stainless Steel Wire
17. Red Lens for Mag-Lite
18. Clear Lens for Mag-Lite
19. 2 Brass Screens
20. Spring for Swiss Army Knife Scissors
21. 2 Eye Glasses Screws
22. 2 Zippo Flints
23. 2 Elastics

Closeup of some of the smaller items.

All in all, a pretty handy assortment of small repair items. I have lots more duct tape and zip ties and 550 cord distributed throughout my gear, as those are the repair triumvirate of power.