Consumerism gone mad, or legitimate reason to replace?

[oursin]

Discover this evening that a substantial portion of seam in my coat (at the side and under one of the sleeves) has come unstitched. There also appears to be a certain degree of lining fraying in the area.

This coat has done me good service for 5 years.

Would it be reckless extravagance to buy a new one, or should I sit down with needle and thread and patch it up?

Okay, I wouldn't deliberately choose to go in for a new coat round about the same time as new glasses and the doing-up-the-bathroom enterprise, but I could manage.

And am not sure how long stitchery and repairs would actually last.

Comments

[strangerskies]

If you can find one that you like, replace it - if nothing grabs you (I'm guessing this is a winter coat, and a lot have sold out by this time of year), stitch it up for now, and then look around again when the next autumn/winter collections come out.

[noveldevice]

I agree with this comment.

If the lining is going, pretty soon the coat will be completely gone unless you want to re-line. Mending the outer seam is a stopgap, but you should start looking around for a new coat now so that your current coat does not self-destruct and become three buttons and a damp rag with no new coats in sight.

[sollers]

Agreed. Stitching in a seam going is one thing, but once the lining starts fraying in one place soon it will fray elsewhere.

[magdalene1.livejournal.com]

If you love the coat and it's otherwise in great shape, may I recommend spending a small-medium amount to have a tailor patch it up and replace the lining? It will be like new.

If you don't love the coat, then your way is clear. :)

[ironed_orchid]

This is what I came here to say.

[shiv]

There are a lot of sales on right now. It could be a good time to pick up a new coat.

[rydra_wong]

Do you derive any intrinsic satisfaction from being able to repair things with needle and thread (I sometimes do), or is it a grisly chore?

[oursin]

Don't much care for it at the best of times, and fear that this would be extremely fiddlesome.

[rydra_wong]

In that case, I feel magdalene1 speaks words of wisdom.

My small point of additional information would be that, should you decide to get a new coat, I have found that secondhand shops in posh areas can sometimes be sources of nearly-new coats at drastically-reduced prices, enabling one to satisfy the impulses towards consumerism and frugality simultaneously.

[sciarra]

I agree! I found an amazing coat second-hand that just met its demise this year. And I found a ridiculously reasonable coat on sale just after xmas.

[movingfinger]

I say look now for a new coat, as it is not yet the end of January and there is plenty of winter left to come. If sales don't oblige, possibly an upscale consignment shop will have something you like. That kind of damage that you describe is annoying to repair and won't stay mended long as it's in a high-wear area.

[saoba]

I have had rawther good luck on coat shopping at the second hand shops- including finding an East German NCO's greatcoat. Wool and practically a class of armor all by itself.

That said, though it is long gone and would no longer fit me at all, I still deeply mourn a winter coat I owned nearly thirty years ago. Ah, bright red wool Russian princess maxi coat with black faux fur trim, I miss thee. I console myself with the fact it went to a teenager whose mother could barely afford food and rent and the kid loved it.

I'd say that unless you love it enough to make the repairs worthwhile then get another coat.

[movingfinger]

I had such a coat in the '70s! It was truly fabulous. I was given a black faux-fur muff that Christmas, too, with a matching black faux-fur hood. If only they'd been real fur---waiting for the bus in subfreezing temperatures could have been warmer...

[mme_hardy]

When we were in Paris last February all the Parisiennes were striding down the street in maxi coats, unbuttoned and billowing behind them. I was very envious.

[adrian_turtle]

If you start looking for a replacement coat now, you might find something good at a discount--stores expect people to buy winter coats in the fall. A quick fix will make your old coat usable for the rest of the winter, so you don't have to buy a coat just because it's marginally acceptable...you can hold out for something you really like.

[ranunculus]

Warning: I'm still using coats that are 15 years old on the ranch, and I have NO fashion sense...

If you decide to repair it -and- the lining repair is in an inconspicuous place, go to the fabric store, get a wee packet of double-stick fabric adhesive, and a wee packet of seam binding tape/blanket edging tape (the bias tape that comes prefolded to fit around the edge of material. Use the sticky tape to attach the bias tape onto the fraying seam. This will effectively cover the fraying edge. Then stitch the lining seam. From that point on it should not fray any more.
Of course finding just the right coat at a 2nd hand/consignment/sale is far more fun!!!

[sara]

Has it got holes in the shoulder where you carry your bag (assuming you carry a bag)?

I have got to do something about a new coat because on top of the lining problems (which I could do, or hire done) the wool is wearing out on shoulders and along underarm seams. Mind you, I'm sufficiently slow-moving on projects like "replace garment I really like with something of equal worth which I have yet to find" that I've been wearing black under my black coat all winter so the holes don't show as much. *sigh*

[white_hart]

In my experience frayed linings just keep fraying in different places, which is no good if you want your coat to look reasonably smart. And I suspect there are still quite a lot of very good bargains to be had in the tail-end of the sales (I know that the coat I bought in Hobbs in October was on sale there for half its original price and £60 less than I paid on special offer when I looked in last week, but on the other hand I was very glad of it in December so I don't really mind!).

[tree_and_leaf]

Patching it up is not a long term solution, but may be worth doing to put you on while you look for a new one at your leisure (if you're like me, anyway, because it always takes me ages to find a coat I'm really happy about, and as it's a significant item of expenditure, you want to get it right; five years is a long time to be stuck with a coat you don't like).

[mme_hardy]

If you love it, it's worth mending.

If you don't, and you're being frugal, look at the elbows and seat -- are they showing visible wear? If so, don't bother mending it, just pass it on to Goodwill.

In my experience, mends last only if the cloth was good. Christ was dead-on accurate about mending old cloth with new patches.