Is There a Way to Repair a Hole in Cycling Shorts?

[wackyjacky1]

(There are tons that don't sell for even their initial $1 bid because who wants a used chamois?)

LMAO!

Yup, I think I'll try the Fray Check + patch route. I used to cross stitch, so I'm familiar with the stuff (and I'm pretty sure I still have a bottle tucked away in my cross stitching box).

I have to wonder, though, why she couldn't chew a hole somewhere less embarrassing. Why go straight for the butt-cheek area?!

[spokewench]

Murphy's law!

[RoadRaven]

We have a few holey shorts and jerseys due to crashes.
I can repair the jerseys ok using a zig-zag stitch... but have had no success at all with lycra.
Maybe I need to get an overlocker...?

Our ripped shorts continue to be used... the latest pair is my son's - his first wearing of new shorts, new jersey and almost new gloves and he crashed so well we had to get him a new bike frame! (Carbon doesn't withstand impact well at all!)

So he still wears his shorts on training rides...but I ask him to wear sunscreen under the shorts on his thigh/hip where the road shredded his shorts (and skin).

[malkin]

If the hole is small enough I'm almost always happier with hand stitching than machine. One grandmother taught me to stitch from the inside, but the other granny told me to watch the outside as I worked on a mend so I'd see how it was going to look.

[bmccasland]

I think if you're hand mending, you'd want the least amount of thread on the inside, so that might make a difference on your stitches.

My experience with fray check is that it itches.

I'd either wear the shorts under tights, or got to the fabric store to find some lycra to mend them.

Can you use the stretchy serger thread to darn the various loops back together? The stretchy serger thread would have give that regular thread wouldn't. (for some reason I never saw the photo before).

[RoadRaven]

All this talk of fraying has me confused... we are talking lycra???

Its just that our lycra shorts with road-crash shreds don't fray... so I am confused...

[malkin]

If a hole doesn't get bigger or reveal anything that you prefer to keep hidden or interfere with the fashion statement you intend to make then it seems to me that it isn't a problem and doesn't need a remedy.

Depending on the knit or weave of the fabric some holes tend to grow and grow (by rip or run) so one may prefer to seal (stop the increase in size of the opening) or mend (close the opening).

A snag is a knit stitch pulled out of its normal length which can look ratty and be the result of (among other things) a drag across an uneven surface, but if the fibers are not broken through, it will not result in a hole and it will not run.

Lycra is really really stretchy, so when a little bit gets grabbed it can snag out of the normal format without breaking. It can get scraped without a rip or a hole.

Does that help the confusion?

I've been listening to Handel's Messiah today, so I'm humming "And all flesh shall see it together" but I'm thinking of the flesh that wasn't really meant to be seen.