Since the playoffs are winding down and fans are buying all the jerseys in Vancouver. I thought I would write an article on jersey repair, up keep, and modification. Being a huge NHL fan I have quite a lot of memorabilia and I guess I could be called a jersey hound. Since I’m not looking for re-sale later in life, I guess the only reason I buy jerseys is that it’s a ‘fun money pit’ for me. Everyone has one, whether its cars, bikes, boats, they're all the same. Here are the legendary secrets of how to get the stains, beer, blood, dirt, snags, sweat, and whatever else happened out of your jersey.
1.) Modification: Now let’s say you remember the Canucks 94 run to the finals but you were too young to afford a jersey and now they’re gone. What I did was buy the 94 style skate, both home and away, one Linden and the other Bure. I bought the 2 points for Frank Griffiths patch for one shoulder, The 94 finals patch for the front, and the Canucks Place first generation for the other shoulder. All the patches were bought on eBay for around 10 dollars from a reparable source. Your next step is finding a picture on the web to use as a reference and accurately stitch them to your jersey. It’s not hard at all, sew the patches buy making the looping very, very small on top and large on the bottom.
2.) Snags: The new era of Rebook jerseys are very easy to snag compared to their tank of a counter part CCM (I still like the CMM better). The Rebook jerseys are aero dynamic, sweat shedding, bla, bla, bla. All that means is brush on anything with a ruff surface and it pulls a piece of the fabric in a nice long strand. Now that your 230 dollar investment looks like the cat scratching post, first thing to do is, DO NOT cut the snags off! Depending on how big it is. cutting could leave you with a hole. What you need is a sewing needle. Wet and roll the snag till you can threat it threw the needle. Then put the needle in backwards with the thread till it comes out the other side. Stretch the jersey with your hands on all sides of the snag until the snag is gone and the jersey can not be pulled any further. 3.) Stains: whether by accident or your just a slob like me, if you can master this trade, your worries are gone. Let me just start by saying I have gotten blood out of white team Canada jersey, as well as beer stains and food stains. Sweat is by far the easiest. Let me first say I don’t think you should wash them because they crease or fade easy. DO NOT DRY CLEAN since it can ruin your jersey. If your jersey smells, hang it on a clothes line on a sunny day. Then all you need is a clean white cloth with one side wet it, the other kept dry, and if it’s that bad a tide to go pen helps. Start by dabbing then drying and repeat over and over until it’s gone. It may take a very long time but you can do it; the tide factor comes in when it won’t come out. Once you dab the jersey with the cloth, then add the tide to go pen. Use the head of the tide pen to scrub in the cleaner, then dab, dry and repeat. All I can say is good luck. If anyone needs help leave a comment and I will try and respond.
what if i cut the snag? IS there any way of saving it? :(
ReplyDeleteHey, Sorry for the late reply. To answer your question, It depends on the size of the snag. If the snag was about 1/6 or 1/4 of an inch, no one will really notice. But the bigger the snag the larger the hole. If there is a hole were you cut the snag, this is where it becomes dicey. If you know someone who is handy with a needle and thread I would ask for there help. If its just you try and find some thread that match the colour of the jersey and TURN IT INSIDE OUT. Try and pull the two side of the cut snag together using the thread. Sow inside in, so you cant see the stitching on the outside. It just takes practice. try it on some rags before hand.
ReplyDeleteGood luck buddy. let me know how it turns out
Took my jersey i was getting framed to a tailor to fix a letter/ Got it back and looks like the cut a inch size hole below the name on the back. any saving it or should i have them get me a new one?
ReplyDeleteI'm not too sure what to do about a hole that size. If the tailor is a place that professionally sews names and numbers to jerseys like a team store or a sports store they should stand behind their work. I would make them correct their mistake. You could try and sew it but it might be noticeable. If you do sew it, sew it from the inside in. If you know someone who is hand with s sewing machine might be another option. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteSo I've got a less than 1-week old Guinness jersey that I ended up with three little snags in the back thanks to some old wooden raisers. So long story short, I was able to use the needle with the aide of a a needle threader, however the other two were a little shorter making the ability to thread it through the needle virtually impossible.
ReplyDeleteSo I came up with an additional trick: I used a needle with a separate piece of thread, which was used to catch the snag as I pulled the needle through. It did take me a couple times to get it to work, but what I noticed is that if I pulled the thread in the needle in the direction of the snag (as I slowly pulled the needle through) is was more likely to catch the snag allowing it to be pulled through successfully.
Thanks for the suggestion either way. I was quite upset that a less-than-one-week-old jersey had very noticeable snags on the back of it.
So I have a jersey that has an iron on team logo as opposed to a sewn on one. Part of the logo has come loose, is there a way to reheat/restick the logo without ruining/melting the actual jersey? It was expensive!
ReplyDeletemy daughter slid and burned a hole in her volleyball jersey. how can i fix it
ReplyDeletemy daughter slid and burned a hole in her volleyball jersey. how can i fix it
ReplyDeleteThe main logo on my jersey got warped from the heat of having a patch put on. Is there anyway to get the logo flattened without destroying the jersey?
ReplyDeleteMy husbands best hockey jersey with sewn on logo went through the dryer on medium, the logo came out wavy. Can I fix it?
ReplyDeletegreat tips indeed, just do not get involved in any hockey fights in your new jersey
ReplyDelete