A big part of the wardrobe redress project is to fix up the clothes I love, so I don’t feel obligated to wear the clothing I don’t love because they are in better condition. This week I tackled my mending basket and fixed up three of my favorite items.
I had preemptively patched my jeans because I knew the one side was wearing thin. I did not correctly anticipate how the fabric would fail. Before I knew it, I was indecent again. Oh crap. Of course I fixed that up quickly with a bit of whip stitching, no worries there. I also trimmed up the loose fibers and re-enforced the edges around the hole with even more stitching.
I’ve had the buttons for this sweater for months and have sat down to stitch them on so many occasions. I would make a cup of tea, turn on a movie, set out my supplies, and…fall asleep. Ha! This weekend I finally succeeded, check out this awesome 70’s sweater jacket that’s now all ready to go for the winter (or chilly summer nights). It’s been missing it’s buttons for over 4 years!
Too bad in the whole mess of mending, I didn’t come up with this flash of brilliance until it was too late:
When you pick up replacement buttons for a garment, pin them to the garment. These poor little guys have been stolen by the ferrets, lost in my bag, lost in the couch, lost in the car, and now I can’t find them at all. I just had this set left (2 out of the four buttons needed) after all the loosing a finding, so I pinned it to the sweater and got them stitched on. Next time, I’ll pin them as soon as I place them with my mending. If you are using loose buttons, you could put them on a safety pin.
I’ve been ignoring the many many tears in my favorite t-shirt, well, no more! Check out these fixed up holes:
All of them:
Holy crap, that is a torn up shirt. I still totally love it! And thanks to an evening of mending, I can continue loving it to shreds.
Have you done any mending lately? What’s been sitting in your pile the longest?
Happy stitching!
Kristin Roach
I just had a mending week too! It started with some shorts for my other half (3 pairs with rips) and a long fight with the sewing machine – which I try so hard to be nice to since it was $10 from an auction and given to me as a gift and I’ve only had to buy needles for it ever – anyway! I added a patch to one pair, and managed to zig-zag the other two. Then I remembered some pants sitting for at least a year on the closet floor that needed to be hemmed for me, and I tackled them too! :)
I just mended a dress that i got at goodwill. The first time I wore it a hole showed up, so I got fabric to fix it.. That was some time last year I think.. Now it is finally fixed :)