I had an old Eastpak that I loved, a reject from one of my kids many moons ago. It did wear out, holes, broken zip, etc. I hated to se it go.
I finally found a lands end one that was similar at their outlet store. The perfect backpack is hard to find.
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I find it hard to decide if I should donate something, particular clothing, or try to find a use for the fabric. I know my standard for what I will wear in public might not be the same as for others who just need decent clothing to wear. I also am loathe to donate worn or torn clothes because if I don’t want to wear it, why would anyone else? At the same time, I can’t use all of the clothing fabric for projects in this lifetime!
Do you think donation places pass on the unusable clothing for the rag industry or something?
I am going to spend a lot of time going through my clothes and shoes this fall. I have to be honest…I probably am not going to remake any clothes into something else. My attempt at refashioning has not worked well in the past.
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Do you know about sugru? It bonds to fabric (actually, it sticks to EVERYTHING) & is good for patching small holes in canvas, learher etc.
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I discovered sugru a few years ago…I used it to repair the handles of some of my pots and pans! It’s pretty cool stuff!
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It’s lasted on a well-used kitchen knife handle for half a dozen years, improves the grip. It’s on the bottom of all the camping dishes & mug handles. Creates non-slip & insulates hot handles. I’ve fixed torn shower curtain rings with it, shoe lace ends, corners of a cell phone, shoe treads. It is AMAZING.
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I think I learned about it from you on the dead site!
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I’m in the same place here, too. What will we actually mend vs keep forever for “someday.” Around here (Massachusetts, USA) there are donation bins at places like schools, etc., that are specifically for “rags” to be recycled. The schools get a payment from the rag company per pound of collections I think. Maybe such a thing exists there, too?
I’m playing around with (read: Obsessing over) the idea of making rag rugs from some of the old stuff and some of my ridiculously inappropriate fabric stash. (I don’t sew but have a fabric collecting hobby/problem lol) But then I can’t keep the fabric for “someday” projects and so I talk myself out of starting. 
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For a lot of things things that I wasn’t sure that anyone else wanted, I just put them for free pickup on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, whatever’s big where you live. With honest pictures so people know what they’re getting. If someone comes, my standards are clearly different from theirs. If no one is interested in picking it up for free, it’s basicaly thrash and can go into the recycling bin.
Here they also collect fabric for rags, and I’m sure that when you donate clothing to a charity shop, they go through the bags to see what can be sold and what can’t. They probably have contacts with a recycling company for the rest. I know thrift shops usually have more staff at the back sorting through donation than they have on the shop floor.
I’ve not heard of Sugru but it looks amazing! I do think the holes in the bottom of my backpack are too big - basically all the corners are gone, and the holes are big enough that the blade of my sewing scissors sometimes stick out. It needs a large patch to cover the entire bottom area of the backpack and I’m not really interested in sewing leather on canvas on my domestic machine. Hoewever, if the shoe repair place can’t do it, I’ll have to look into other options. I will check if I can get Sugru here because I already have a dozen other things in my head that I could potentially use it for.
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Leather is easy to hand stitch if the holes are pre-punched…
Re: thrift stores, unfortunately a lot of the unwanted textiles end up either in the trash or getting shipped off in crates to third world countries where people don’t want a lot of it either. If you think something’s rag-worthy rather than still good to wear it’s better to try googling textile recycling & see if there’s someplace you can take it for that. (I know H&M took old clothes & fabric donations the last time I looked, so that might be a place to start if you have nearby mall shops)
2 patches onto the backpack, and a break because sewing onto plasticized canvas is hard on the fingers. (ow!!)
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I actually took the time to (try to) check out what happens to the things left for textile recycling at our recycling center. They take ”unusable” textiles too, to support recycling.
From what I can tell:
They sort some themselves
- If it’s deemed good enough to sell in this country, they try to sell it in their own stores.
- They send some as aid.
- If it’s not good enough for that it’s either burned for energy or sorted for recycling
Or, they sell to ”sorting companies” that they don’t specify. Theoretically the same kind of sorting takes place there. Sell for reuse, sort in order to recycle the materials, or burn.
And hidden in other text it says that the recycling is done ”on the global market”. Soo… nothing is recycled in my country. I’m guessing something like this place?
https://www.ico-spirit.com/en/
It’s apparently the one H&M sends their stuff to.
Most of the places that collects old textiles are charities, and they just want to make money for their cause. I guess it’s not strange that they sell the less attractive things to other companies if they can.
It’s not easy to figure out where things could end up!
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I watched a documentary a while back about women in another country who worked in a cloth recycling sorting business. Shipments of used clothing from the USA. The clothing would be made into other products.
I have forgotten most of the details but, I remember the women laughing at the strange and ugly clothing, wondering about who would ever wear such things.
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Hmm… Maybe this will provide some inspiration for me. A free mending club, but you do need to give out an email adress:
I haven’t done much mending lately, just finding problem areas in need of mending 
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My washing machine snagged my mattress protector! I have a heated on for winter and this nice fluffy one for summer. It was probably too much for the washer as I usually have to take it to the commercial laundry. It is the side that goes against the mattress, so I am not going to do as neat a job…just stitch it closed so the stuffing doesn’t fall out!
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Whatever gets the job done, right?
Today I’m going to try to tackle this small hole before it gets worse:
The knit fabric is double and it seems to be the outer layer only. My cats are highly suspect for causing it since they love to give ”catupuncture”.
Edit: The result. Black on black so I was basically mending blindly here
Well, if I can’t see what I did, no one is going to notice this.
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This took longer than expected. I decided to back up the tear with a scrap piece of white fabric since it seemed the washer might have damaged more than I thought! Not pretty, but it is the underside of the mattress cover and there is stuffing in between the front and back. No one will see it and it will work for a long time as long as I take it to the commercial washers as I should have!
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Well done!
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I have something to clean up - my old doll! I hate dolls (so creepy!) but for whatever reason, this one was ok with me. My brother found it in a bin of stuff from our parents’ house and mailed it to me last week. It needs cleaning (the photos make it look cleaner than it is) but it isn’t bad dirty. And the pull-string voice box still works, all these decades later!
So how to clean it? The hood is glued to the head (the only hair on it are the bangs), and the body is beanbag with the plastic hands. (Why did I not find this one creepy!?!?)
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I would do a very slow, damp and not wet cleaning of the doll. If you have a not-too-strong vacuum with a nozzle attachment you might be able to start by putting a sock over the end and giving it a gentle once over. Then get 2 white cloths (face cloths/towels) and do a gentle clean and immediate dry with them. Maybe dawn dish soap? And maybe magic eraser on the face?
Please google all this, I have no idea if it would be good. I just know you dont want too much water to keep the voice box safe.
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The teddy bear ladies on The Repair Shop will sometimes use just the suds from soapy water to clean fragile vintage toys. Which soap? I don’t remember!
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