Every week, I listen to Garrison Keillor on Saturday nights. That's when I pay bills and do mending. . . . except when I just pay bills. Somehow the pile of mending has grown to large proportions this past month. Scary mending pile. It looks daunting.
But in fact, this entire pile took less than 1/2 hour to go through. Why don't I ever remember it's not that bad to do a bit of patching?
C-son developed a mysterious hole at the nape of one of his t-shirts. I just overlapped the fabric and zigzag stitched this back together.
J-son is hard on the knees of his jeans. These had been previously patched, but he wore a new hole into them.
Since summer is a cumin' in (laude sing cuckoo), I didn't bother with a second patch. Instead, I cut the jeans above the hole. The bottom, hole-y part will become patch material for the next jeans that need new knees . . .
Another pair of pants was missing a button and had a new hole in the knee.
Some fixes are so easy as to make knees and pockets and darning seem like rocket science. I love replacing stitches in a regular seam, as I did for this small hole in the armpit of a blouse. Thank goodness my sewing skills are better than my photography skills:
But some things are just too hard, even for me. N-son fidgeted several large holes in his green knit shirt; I couldn't think of a way to patch this and still have it look good. The sock was beyond redemption, as was a torn white undershirt. The undershirt got cut into squares and became rags. The other garments . . . alas, these went into the trash.
The tally: 5 fixed garments, 20 minutes, $0. Hard to beat that, really.
But in fact, this entire pile took less than 1/2 hour to go through. Why don't I ever remember it's not that bad to do a bit of patching?
I used a stretch stitch to sew a pocket back onto N-son's bike jersey:
C-son developed a mysterious hole at the nape of one of his t-shirts. I just overlapped the fabric and zigzag stitched this back together.
. . . and a quick hem turned the top part into summer shorts.
A trip to the button jar cured the first problem . . .
And a trip to the scrap bag got me good material for a knee patch that matches surprisingly well:
These secret reservoirs of stuff, and their occasional success at fixing something, is what impels us to become hoarders. It's darned hard to fight the hoarding tendency when it actually pays off.
Some fixes are so easy as to make knees and pockets and darning seem like rocket science. I love replacing stitches in a regular seam, as I did for this small hole in the armpit of a blouse. Thank goodness my sewing skills are better than my photography skills:
But some things are just too hard, even for me. N-son fidgeted several large holes in his green knit shirt; I couldn't think of a way to patch this and still have it look good. The sock was beyond redemption, as was a torn white undershirt. The undershirt got cut into squares and became rags. The other garments . . . alas, these went into the trash.
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