(Quick mend) Technical rain coat
My dad and I took a close look at his stalwart raincoat to figure out its ingredients. To our dismay, we found that the collar area is massively delaminating.
There’s not a lot to do for this area, though the delam is causing snagging in the knit lining (dark grey streaks). However, the cable management pocket in the center of the collar/hood is also coming off. This needed a fix, in order to stop the delam from expanding and prevent the hood adjuster cables from flapping free in the breeze.
We reviewed our tools available – seam tape (which has been languishing in the bottom of my tool bag because I can’t get the liner off), silicone adhesive (messy), and Bemis thermoplastic film adhesive. Plus, a hobby sealing iron and isopropyl alcohol (for cleaning the area to be bonded).
We used the Bemis and covered it with scraps from a torn silk shirt of mine (burgundy).
Approaches I’m happy with here:
Making really big patches so the edges landed on the seam sealing tape.
Using very thin silk for the patches to maintain flexibility.
Issues:
Making the rookie mistake putting the release paper sticky-side down while bonding the silk to the Bemis, so paper stuck to the fabric.
Not pre-laminating the silk to the Bemis and then applying both to the jacket.
Total time: 10 minutes
Methods for workshop repair (i.e. technical seam lamination):
Lots of shops offer this exact repair. Partial list here.
What I haven’t seen offered is repair for membrane delamination (which I didn’t address here).