Never Again

[Mojo]

I have made it a practice not to re-sew awnings that have torn or the thread has broke on. I feel it is a waste of money, especially when the fabric is old. But I got a call from a customer ( an RV Dealership ) to re-sew an awning that was torn off the side of an RV after their customer backed into a tree. :) I went ahead and re-stitched the top and side seams for them as a favor. They send me a lot of business.

Never again. I laid the awning out in the driveway and cleaned it before bringing it into the shop and found that was a waste of time. When I finished stitching the awning I found little tiny grains of sand everywhere on my machine and table. Now I have to take the machine out to the woodshop and blow the the crap out of all the nooks and crannies. The last thing I need is for my machine to puke a hook and bobbin case because of sand and grit getting fed into the mechanisms.

You can clean these things till the cows come home but anything in Florida will have sand embedded in the threads and fabric. What a mistake.

What is your policy on re-stitching ? I wont do it again. The money I make does not make it worth it to me.

Chris

[mike802]

Chris, I used to do a lot of re sew jobs on jeep tops, tents and all types of canvas products and it was always the same, messy.  I found out that most canvas needed to be re sewn because of dry rot and, miss use and I had to post a sign that stated repairs were not guaranteed.  I did it because I thought it would turn into repeat business, it did, more crappy repair work.  Today I turn most of it away, unless it is from a really good customer and they understand up front that I cant guarantee the repair and why.  In some instances the repair takes longer than making a new canvas.  It's one of those traps we all fall into, you think it will be simple to make a few repairs hear and there, but then you find out many seams have to be ripped so the patch can lay down into it and look half way decent,  then you find dry rot, but only in spots and those spots are always close to where you are making a repair, it goes on and on. 

[Mojo]

It just isn't worth it. When customers are paying dealers to remove the awning then I charge them to re-stitch it and then they pay to have it re-installed by the dealer only to have the fabric give way a year later, it is just throwing good money after bad.

I do not want the liability of a re-stitch job or the mess so I am done doing this kind of work. I just finished blowing my machine all out and re-oiling it and also cleaning up my shop. There was nasty Florida sand/grit everywhere. Amazing how that stuff gets embedded into the threads, fabric, etc.

Chris

[sofadoc]

I used to keep my old Pfaff 145 just for re-sewing trampolines. I used to re-sew 2 or 3 a week. Wal-mart was selling those cheap trampolines like hotcakes.
Other than blowing out the bobbin case with an air hose, I really didn't do any special cleaning after a re-sew. And beleive me, those trampolines were filthy.
It's been at least a couple of years since someone even asked me to re-sew one.
I don't have the Pfaff anymore, and I'm not going to subject my main machine to that torture, so I guess I'm out of that business as well.

[Mike8560]

Will resew canvas. 
if it's realy grundgy I'll wash it off with the hose and let it dry. Alot of time thereS bugs and leaves. If it's rotting I can tear it with just my two fingers showing them it  it is rotton.
if it's a teat thee want to fix unless it caught on  somthing it's probly just rotton and a wayste of money  I'll tell them
I've never had. Sand

[lruthb]

I never had to clean up my machine after a resew project. Yet I'm in the midwest. Boat canopies, awnings, canvas work that sort of stuff. Never never again. At first I thought the first one was a nightmare so the next would be better. Customer unhappy even thou we talked about  a no guarantee. When the customer talked about the results of the job they never said that I didn't recommend the work.  I tried four times to try and try again and I still say never never again.

[BigJohn]

I guess it comes down to the old saying " sxxt in sxxt out".

[Mojo]

Will resew canvas if it's realy grundgy I'll wash it off with the hose and let it dry. Alot of time there bugs and leaves. If it's rotting I cantear it with just my two fingers showing them it  it is rottonplank if it's a teat thee want to fix unless it caught somthing it's probly just rotton and a wayste of kinney I'll tell them first hand.
I've never had. Sand

It was all over my feed dogs. I wiped some on my fingers and you could feel the grit.

I got the machine cleaned out well and re-oiled it and its good to go.

Chris

[bobbin]

I tell anyone looking for restitch that I reserve the right to say, "NO".  I lay it out with the customer and go over it carefully, explaining the process to the customer.  I give an honest opinion of the piece... is it worth it, or are they throwing good money after bad.  

If it's too dirty, I tell them I will do it but they have to clean it themselves (I don't do that).  I make great money on restitches, but have learnt over time that there are certain things I won't do and I ALWAYS make sure the clean up time is included in any estimate I give.  Sewing is only a bit of the repair cost... clean up after dirty things is charged to the dirty repair!  Always.  

[scottymc]

Did a few horse blanket repairs for a shop, hair everywhere. Then they asked if I could do them cheaper, as they had add on there mark up. Told em not to worry about it as I would not ever be doing another one in my lifetime, have had people ask me round here but there is no way. Though I have been told by the horse people that it is bad form to not clean it before hand , I agreed with them and told them to take it to someone else.

[JuneC]

It's a tough call, but I've spent many hours cleaning my space and sewing machine after a restitch that was just awful.  Too much dirt/grit/seagull crap.  But I've also cleaned canvas before restitching and charged for ALL hours involved.  Depends on how well I know the customer.  I don't volunteer to do that for everyone at any price. 

June

[scottymc]

I forgot about one that I had come in a couple of months ago, a couple of guy's one I knew from surfing found me in the surf shop he was with a couple of fishermen that just pulled in harbour, they had a sea anchor that they wanted restitched, the guy who owned the shop reckoned it was hilarious listening to me trying to throw up every excuse in the book and making a few up and these guys just would not take no for an answer, in the end I broke down and said bring it around and I'll see what I could do. 15 minutes later they are round at my shed , pull it out of the back of the  ute it's 40 foot long and dripping with salt water, first thing I said was it had to hosed down and dried, nope no time for that we're going out again tonight. All I could think about was how rusty my machine could get, I have problem with just the salt air. Took another 20 minutes to convince them there no way I would touch it.

[JuneC]

Scotty, I would have told them "Sure!  But it'll cost you the price of a new machine since this one's going to be a rust bucket in about 3 days..." 

June

[Mike8560]

E type of restitch I used to get alot up ay the lake was tubing tude s the strap would break I theyed ask me to reset it  or patch the ca. As skin were it was torn generwly from rot on the canvas.  Due to
liabily I would tell them no.  I didn't need the strap to break and have a tow line and many the. Stainless ring on the tube fly back into the boat.
Thinking vsckwrds now we also had tubes forsale nextdoor at our. Sportshop.
Inever thought of that till just now a sales ploy.