Short comic for my spice and everyone who needs it. #serviceanimals #delusions

You repeat this exactly on the hem side; that's what makes the stitch both secure and fast. It also makes the hem lay very flat, which is nice.

Once pulled through, it should look like this, but slightly less sideways. My camera is not being cooperative.

Once the thread has been secured in the hem, start by "catching" the fabric, while keeping the thread itself AHEAD of the needle, then pull through.

Before finishing the waistband sleeve, I prefer to measure and sew the elastic while I have plenty of room to move it. That's done by wrapping the elastic around where it will sit, marking it, and then sewing or tying as preferred.

The stitch I'm using to secure the sleeve is called a back stitch, because it loops back on itself. It's highly reccomended for stretch and knit fabrics, as well as any seam that will see a lot of stretching, movement, etc.

The fastest/easiest for me is to simultaneously be sewing the sleeve. I have dogs, cats, etc, I need to be able to put this down without worrying about pins going flying.

So on the opposite side to all this, I am slowly sewing.

Unpick/cut this attaching thread. In the pants I've been repairing, this thread appears to be a single thread of the fabric itself, and unsuitable for re-use, which I found very disappointing. I didn't have a suitable thread for the first pair of pants I fixed.

Once a length has been unpicked from the hemline, it should free up the raw edge and the elastic. I tend to go in lengths of about a hand-width at a time, but that's just what's comfortable for me.

I do tend to trim threads when they get too long during unpicking, but this is sort of up to everybody. I just find it easier to clean up than dozens of small bits.

I start my unpicking here, and the outer side of the waistband. I prefer using my seam ripper for this- and technically I'm using it wrong because I'm NOT ripping the seam, but that is because I want to reuse the fabric and elastic. I don't want to lose a scrap of either.

Then I turned the waistband over on the first pair- literally just to find the access spot and shorten the elastic- and found that the way they make pants /changed/. The elastic was sewn directly to the raw edge of the pants, then folded down and hemmed.

Then, however, she treated it as a shake-toy (she has one named Flop) and...

Unicorn was not made to handle that, apparently. A day or so later, she is now a flop toy- no stuffing, no squeaker! And so far, she hasn't needed more repair...

Flop on the other hand lost a leg.

It took a few days before we gave it back that time. Too much stuff to do to sit and sew all day. But then Uni was repaired, again, and given back to her as a NOT FOR CRATE TIME toy this time. That worked for at least a month? Until The Boredom hit.

Uni was then back on table in about 2 hours, courtesy of Rosey.
We learned something- Rosey likes toys she can PULL at.

For those who haven't seen the surgery Saga- it started here.
Uni got a wonderful prosthetic shoulder and a strip of her side replaced.

And the Unicorn Surgery Saga has concluded....for now.....

She hasn't been back on my table since this repair last week.