Repair holes in masking

[Smatticus]

What is the best way to repair holes in masking? Specifically the backing on a grand curtain. How about a hole in a cyclorama? Just trying to get some ideas for what the best solution would be, our grand curtain has several holes or tears in its backing, fortunately not in the Velour itself.

[Van]

Holes in the backing of your grand should be no big deal at all. Get a glovers needle, some thread, and stich away. if you need to patch an area, anytype of medium weight muslin should do the trick nicely. The Cyc is another matter all together. The big issue with both cycs and scrims is Puckers. The ban of the stitchers world. The absolute best way to repair a hole in a cyc is to find someone, a seamstress, who knows how to darn. You might have heard of "Darning Socks" this doesn't mean yelling curses at them, it actually referes to a process of repairing holes by essentially re-knitting the threads. The advantage of darning holes is that it leaves next to no noticable marks. sewing a patch from behind or simply whip stitching a tear will leave tattletales on the front side of the curtains.
If you have no other choice, use an extremely small gauge glovers needle, or curved sewing needle, and from the back side of the curtain, using as fine a thread as possible whip the hole closed. try to work your stitches so they don't actually go all the way through to the front side of the cyc. If the stitches do go all the way through, then attempt to get as close as possible to the previous stitch with your next stitch, Basically try to do your best to darn the thing. it takes time and patience but the longer you take to repair it, the better the results will be and the happier your lighting guys will be. And we all know it's all about keping the LD happy !

[maccor]

This won't work for cyc's, etc., but....

When I took over at our high school, the legs, borders, and even the grand had tears and rips in them. I'm not that handy with needle and thread, nor did I like the previous fix of "a bunch of really big safety pins".

I went to Wal-Mart and bought Iron on knee patches for pants (they come in black, blue, etc. 2/99 cents). They come 4"X6". I cut them into 2" wide strips, trimmed up the loose threads, and ironed them onto the back of the curtains (yes, even the Grand). Since velour rips in straight lines, it's usually a pretty invisible patch.

They have worked great for 2 years running. I even repaired a ripped chain pocket with them and it's holding up fine. I use a small student desk as the "ironing board" and fly in the leg/border to the right heigth to work on it. The only "con" so far would be that you pretty much only have one shot at getting it right.

Cheap and doesn't require a lot of skill....that's perfect for high school theater!

Mike