Good reminder that small tears soon become big ones!
Nice job!
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Does this count? Shower curtain plus 3 foster kittens, and a year old kitten (for ever ours)…and tape.
The danger of keeping your tape in the craft room…red thread alert!
And whoops, more to mend!
Between Cronona virus delays and storm outages, these kittens are going to be adults by the time they are adopted. Not really, but we usually don’t have kittens this old running in packs around the house. We hope to keep this cheap, tattered curtain until the kittens are off to their forever homes. This was from about a month and a half ago.
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I once had a down comforter that I “patched” with duct tape planning on doing a real patch job the next day. The duct tape stayed on for about 6 months 
The kittens are adorable! I hope they find their forever home soon.
The only mending I have done over the past few months is patching up a set of sheets. I still have plans to patch some of my nice socks but for now have still just been wearing them, hole and all.
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I finally tackled my fix-it pile this afternoon. Fixed a dress, some PJ pants, a shirt, a couple pairs of underwear, and socks.
Some pre-fixing pics.
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Hmmm… I washed a few handknits and other ”handwash” items today, and while clean this poor shawl is looking pretty ragged. Not really a surprise. I’ve worn it a ton and got it caught in the zipper a couple times. 
We also have moths in the house and dirty/well worn silk/mohair must be super tasty!
I’m debating if I should fix it, and in that case how. I’m leaning toward maybe needle felting to patch up and reinforce since I don’t think I have any leftover yarn from when I knitted it. It’s been more than a couple years.
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Needle felting could look really cool especially if you do a contrasting color and make it some sort of design like, I don’t know, stars or hearts or something. Something that’s your style or personality. That could be really cool.
Eta: i am trying my hand at some visible mending for some old sneakers. Never done it before, really, and I don’t know embroidery stitches so it is embarrassingly bad, but the shoes are just for in the backyard and if they go horribly wrong no one will see but at least i get some practice. My husband is shaking his head. “Just buy some new shoes already.”
Me: that’s soooooooo not the point! Haha
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Those are cute, but I’m with your husband. Worn out or nonsupporting shoes turn into future foot, leg, and back pain. I wish I’d been more careful with footwear.
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Thanks. 
The feet affect everything, for sure. These’re not for “real” wearing anymore really, I mostly wanted to keep wearing them around the yard a bit until the weather turns. They are still comfortable, just, I don’t love having my socks poking out. I do have “real” shoes for leaving the house and whatnot. I just figured it was a good excuse to try the mending on something that wasn’t important so if it went horribly wrong they’re only getting junked a month or so early. For some reason my toes like a sunroof in all things. Poor socks, they get the worst of it.
I do draw the line at second hand shoes for me or the daughter because everyone’s gait is so different I don’t want to cause trouble with however they may have broken in the shoe differntly from how our bodies would have.
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I have a pair of yard shoes just like that. I always have the same issues with my toes too - thankfully I don’t mind darning socks! I wear my shoes from the back door to the trash can or the laundry line and back. I’m sure those couple of minutes won’t do my feet any harm. Off topic, but 6 months of lockdown have been great for my feet. I’ve been at home most of the time, walking around in bare feet, and when I go outside I wear proper hiking shoes, not work heels. I thought it was normal to have painful feet at the end of the day, turns out it isn’t!
On topic, I’m changing out my summer and winter clothes this week and that always results in a pile of mending. I’m starting with attaching buttons tonight.
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Super cute!!!
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Done with buttons! This was the last item. I wear this lined flannel shirt all the time when I’m at home (well, in winter of course). Super comfortable. Because of how thick it is, it’s not a lot of fun to stitch on the buttons. But it’s done and can go straight into the closet now.
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Well done!
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I finally attacked the mending pile tonight. I started out pretty easy, mending a tiny hole before it decides to grow.
I tried to take a photo of the hole, but it was really only visible when the fabric was stretched. The mend with a small dot on it is the new one.
Next up this beauty:
The wool is a pretty decent match, but omg this thing is so full of holes! Probably moths snacking on it, but it’s a nice looking and comfy sweater so I’ll give it a go. Those three holes down (I mended one more after taking the photo), who knows how many more to go?
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It has been quite awhile since I checked in on this thread and WOW! What a treat to see all the clever and innovative mends (and maintains)! You all are so inspiring!
Now I bring to you a story of mistakes and redemption: in 2015 I built a woodshed! About 85% all by myself. It holds almost 4 cords of firewood which is about what we can expect to go through in a year - we heat our Montana home predominantly with wood.
In the winter of 2019-20 I tore off the lower step and really wrecked the stair jacks when I made the mistake of looking where I was going when I backed up the snow plow; I caught the plow blade on the lower step. D’oh! I even bent up the framing hardware.
Just last weekend I disassembled what was left to assess what I needed to do: replace 4 of the six brackets and all three stair jacks. Luckily, I was able to save the treads and risers which would be harder to replace as they are a true 1" thick 1x6 that we bought from a local mill (and are what the shed floor is made from).
Two of the tread and one of the riser boards were splitting from natural wear and tear, but were made worse by the Plow Encounter, so I glued and clamped them before installing the new stair jacks and brackets.
Just in time, because we received our first load of firewood last week and it needs to be stacked before our second load comes next week! The firewood you can see is actually left from last year’s deliveries, because we had a rather mild winter.
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Lovely wood shed, I want one, but we live in a city and don’t go through much wood in the winter. I love the 1" thick boards, those should last a very long time! I love to see projects like this.
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It looks great! And I love to see the trees and the laundry in the back as well. I think I need to live in Montana as well!
Recently I read a book called Montana Women Homesteaders about single women who homesteaded there a century ago. It was seriously impressive!
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I read that if you put a bay leaf in with your wools that moths hate the smell…I can’t stand the smell of mothballs…I also put bay leaf in with my flours to keep out those weevils…
Not done much mending lately…
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I completely forgot to add my mendiest project here. TheMisterT’s water purifier pouch’s zipper failed, so I made a new one using parts of the old one as well as “harvested” parts off other things and fabric from stash.
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You know what else I needle felted?
I always get a hole on that thumb for some reason… Hopefully this was the last pair that needed mending for now.
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That’s a heavy-duty mend and maintain!
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