Mend and maintain for a sustainable 2020

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.

WaterPumpBag00

WaterPumpBag01

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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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Alright, I’m back to patching pants. These boys, gosh. I found, in my last round of pants-patchin’, that fleece patches hold up really well! Also, I don’t know why I tortured myself by sewing them all on by hand last time. This time, the pair of pants on the far right had developed a hole in the knee as well as a split in the leg seam. Having the leg open allowed me to sew the patch on by machine and I know, opening the side seam is often recommended; I guess I just felt like it would be too much trouble last time. Whatever, past self! I did all four of these pants in 2 hours, whereas it probably would have taken me 2 weeks to sew all that denim by hand.

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Well done, and I love the pair on the right! It’s like the monster is wearing a sweater.

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haha He kinda is now. I can’t take credit for the monster, though – he was already on there. :slight_smile:

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Have you considered gluing iron plates to the inside of new jeans before allowing a boy to wear them? I started adding iron on patches to the inside of my son’s pants when he was little…improved the life a bit.

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I’m thinking that I know why boys were dressed in breeches until they were 14 or so!!! Think I can bring back some “vintage” styles? haha My sons might have something to say about that.

Not a bad idea!

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Awesome!

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Oh man! I took pictures of this, but I forgot to post it. Ok, I made this cloak 7 yrs ago when I was hugely pregnant and my coats wouldn’t fit. At the time, I thought I was being all fancy by making my own frog closures. I didn’t do a very good job, though, and they always popped open and then the weight of the cloak would pull itself off making it pretty much worthless. This summer, I finally took off the frogs and put on buttons and buttonholes. Now I have a wearable cloak!

Before

After

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I love your cloak! wow…you did a wonderful job on it…I think the buttons will let you have much more use of it…did you use a pattern or follow a tutorial? I love the welt pockets.

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Thank you! I did use a pattern; it’s McCall’s 6446. That was my first time doing welt pockets. It ended up not being as scary as I thought!

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I love it! The fabric choices are great and the buttons look lovely. And now you have a whole new cloak to wear.

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Thank you! I was very excited – it was chilly enough Sunday morning that I was able to wear it. And it stayed on! Woo hoo!

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Awesome! I do love a nice cloak. :slight_smile:

I havent done much mending as i had creating to finish up for special occasion deadlines but i am really feeling the pull to start some now. I just set up a nice crafty corner in my bedroom to keep handy an ongoing project and a mending basket (I’ve decided to stop calling it a pile because “basket” sounds so much more attractive. Maybe by giving it a fancier name I’ll be more likely to get it done? LOL)
Anyway, I got this book out at the library:


Hopefully this provides the missing motivation!

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Hmmm, that sounds like an interesting book!

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I only just cracked it open but I am loving the slow-feel of it. The cover feels nice in the hand as well. There are illustrated pages to start off that give it a very “home grown” feel that I appreciate.

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I have read the whole thread and now I feel motivated to repair some things. I have saved a lot of your ideas and put the book on hold at the library.

I’m often taping small rips in picture books, whether they are home books or books from the library.

My son has a hole in his nice pair of jeans, so I’ll be putting some fun embroidery on them, like I have been seeing on here. He had a couple pairs of pants that wore out in the knees, but they were more cloth like and the patches tore out after a few wears. At his school there is a bin for recycling clothing, so I’ve put some items in there including a stack of my husbands jeans that had ripped at the crotch and I was in no mood to try repairing them. If I had seen this thread, I would have saved the fabric and used it to make a little blanket.

I’ve had some shirts in the mending pile so long that they no longer fit me, which is sad.

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There’s no shame in not mending if the time and energy isn’t there. Can’t win them all!

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And at least you recycled the clothing! Sometimes that’s the best we can do.

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