Wearables The Moth Massacre Restoration Project

Moths got into one of the cabinets where I keep doll clothes. They gravitated towards my handknit and handsewn creations. I'm putting this into a project journal in case anyone else ends up in this situation. Repairs are possible, but I'm annoyed there's a need to fix things, especially since I have another doll project underway.

After brushing away the moth dirt, I spritzed everything in large amounts of cedar spray. My nose wasn't happy with me.


I also assessed the damage on each piece. A tie got chewed off here, and an earflap had a chunk taken out:


A big hole in a sleeve, and a smaller hole in the front:


A hole in a cuff and the collar. The rest of the sweater, made with a wool blend, was fine.


Another damaged collar, and many holes in the skirt:


A second skirt full of holes:

 

Since the hat is felted, that went into the wash under high heat to kill any eggs. Everything else is still in the freezer.



It wasn't until hours later that I thought of just ironing everything to kill eggs. I'll do that later.

 

That's horrifying. I can't imagine what emotions this discovery stirred up.

I appreciate the encouragement. Also agree moths should snack on other things instead, like fast fashion polyesters.

Thank you all for your kind words.

 

The first item I tackled was the hat. It went through the wash with hot water. Once it was dried, I found the moths snacked on one of the earflaps, as well as chewed a string off. As the string is made with the same yarn as the hat, I tried unraveling the remaining string to use for sewing up the earflap. The yarn was too delicate and kept snapping, so I used ordinary sewing thread instead. The stitches are visible in person if you know what you're looking for, but I doubt anyone but me will notice.



After taking off the remaining string, I braided some fine yarn to use as replacement ties on the earflaps.



I ironed the hat to kill any remaining moth eggs, gave it another spritz of cedar spray, and returned it to the cabinet.

 

The second item to get repaired is the yellow/green/red sweater. I spotted some smaller holes, which were easy to close with sewing thread. The annoying part was that I kept finding more, like a moth designed game of whack-a-mole. I didn't take any pictures of this part.

My next step was to knit a patch where a chunk of arm got chewed up. As this sweater was deigned to use the very last bits of stash yarn, I didn't have an exact match. I do however have some yarn in "close enough" yellow, and it only took a few minutes to knit a patch. Sewing it in place was also quick.



As before, I ironed everything to kill any eggs that might be hiding.

 

I didn't think of that. I'm glad you did.

Thanks. I hope the rest of the project turns out as well.

 

Moths snuck into another location I was storing doll clothes. Thankfully, the damage seems limited to one item. I didn't have any cooridnating yarn for this one, so this shawl will be an "everyday," not a "good" shawl. The darns definately make it look lived in:

 

Fun idea! Thanks for sharing.