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To Sew or Not to Sew???


TBMflyer
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Hi gang, bought a USMC s/sgt blouse yesterday. It had a diamond shaped patch on the sleeve at one time, but it had been removed. Got home and found a 1st Marine Division patch in the inside pocket. All of the patches are(were) machine sewn. Do I have someone hand sew the patch on or take it to a tailor and have them machine sew it? Opinions please, Mark.

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Mark,

 

This is a good question with many different opinions by collectors. Do you leave it as it is with the patch in the pocket? Do you restore the original patch to its original location? Machine sew or hand sew.

 

I have been there and done that.

 

Here is what I do in this instance. I restore the patch to the uniform. You are not adding something that was not there before. I hand stitch the patch so the original machine stitch holes are still visible on the back. That way it does not have two sets of stitch holes and it is a restoration that can be undone in the future. All proper museum restorations are done in a similar manner so that the restoration can be seen by conservators and can be undone at a later date without injury to the artifact.

 

Just my two-cents.

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Mark,

 

This is a good question with many different opinions by collectors. Do you leave it as it is with the patch in the pocket? Do you restore the original patch to its original location? Machine sew or hand sew.

 

I have been there and done that.

 

Here is what I do in this instance. I restore the patch to the uniform. You are not adding something that was not there before. I hand stitch the patch so the original machine stitch holes are still visible on the back. That way it does not have two sets of stitch holes and it is a restoration that can be undone in the future. All proper museum restorations are done in a similar manner so that the restoration can be seen by conservators and can be undone at a later date without injury to the artifact.

 

Just my two-cents.

 

I would agree.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would personally leave it as is. If I did anything, I would pin it in place, or lightly stitch it with just a couple of stitches.

 

Bill

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