I have a question: Do y’all think it’s worth it to darn my 7 yo son’s hole in the heel of his sock? It already has a hole at the toe that I was going to fix, but then I saw the heel…
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How attached is he to these socks, & how picky is he about “scratchy” clothes? (There is no way my kid would consent to wear a darned sock, but not everyone is as much of a pickypants.)
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They aren’t one of his favorite pairs. I was concerned that having something on his heel might bother him.
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Love it! My sashiko never comes out as neat!
I usually only darn hiking socks, cotton thights and handknitted socks. Regular shop bought socks are very thin and more difficult to darn - I think patching may be easier than darning. And thin socks are so cheap these days, unlike my €10/pair hiking socks.
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I only repair real favorites of anything, but rarely socks unless they are hand knit or pricey…children socks…toss!
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Okay, I’ll put them in the clothes recycling bin at the school. Thank you all for your input!
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Does anyone have a clever idea how to fix this oven mitt?
It seems the seam came loose in the washing machine and then the fabric frayed. It’s too frayed to just fold the seam allowance back inside and hand sew it close. I think a patch may be the only option? I’d have to sew it on by hand so the stitches only go through the outer layer and not through all three layers.
In cases like this I sometimes think “what would my grandmothers have done?” because that generation were the queens of make do and mend. I’m sure they would take the whole mitt apart, make it slightly smaller and sew it back together again. I’m afraid I’m just too lazy for that…
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This doesn’t really count as mend, but it does as sustainable. We are finally building our dream 3 season room onto the back of our house. Digging starts Monday and the builder said, umm, you need to move the old cement patio pavers. They are 18" x 24" X 2.5" of old, solid, heavy cement. We asked the builder if he was getting a dumpster, no. Could he take the slabs, no. We did dig them up and move them to the front driveway (thanks to my mighty wife) and I posted them on Craigs List. 6 calls in 3 hours! The first people (very nice family) took all the good slabs and the smaller blocks, and another woman picked up the less than perfect ones. Wow. Some 40+ pieces of cement gone in two days. And two very happy groups of people. And no cost to any of us. Now we do have to deal with some leftover broken slabs, but that’s so much less of a problem. And yes, digging starts on Monday!
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A lot of people are looking out for used to building materials. We found that out when my mom decided to get rid of her porch (it was poorly designed by the previous owners) all the materials were picked up in a few hours. It’s great that materials are getting a second life and it’s easier for you as well. Win win!
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I’d get a little bit of fabric & patch over it by hand.
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I got rid of some shower doors that way. I don’t know why anyone would want them, they were covered with soapscum, but I put that in the description. Someone came anyway and picked them up.
My dad put a Free sign on his toilet that he was getting rid of and put it at the end of the lane. Gone within hours.
I had an oversized wooden shelf that I set outside and put a Free sign on because we didn’t have a truck to take it to Goodwill. Once again, someone picked it up.
Pretty amazing. Makes you wonder what people do with the stuff.
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A lot of people scavenge for parts or for metal…a broken air conditioner is worth a few dollars just for the metal inside…parts are taken out of old appliances to repair appliances…I saw where garbarge collectors collected enough thrown out books and magazines to do a free library in some country!
I am glad there are people able to do this…we get rid of so much stuff and are so wasteful…
I am trying to downsize and the hardest part is finding out the places that could use the stuff instead of throwing it out…
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Do you have a Habitat for Humanity ReStore near you?
When we reorganized the garage, rebuilt our fence, and cleared out one of the rooms to repurpose the space this summer, we donated a lot of stuff to them.
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@irid3sc3nt I don’t miss much about living in a vibrant urban neighborhood, but one thing I miss a lot is being able to get rid of things just by setting them out on the curb. We also got some great things that way! One of my all time favorite Halloween decorations came from the curb and once I found 1940s tiles that matched exactly the fireplace tiles in my friends “new” house and she was able to remove cracked ones with them!
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Soooo, not exactly mending or maintaining, but saving: We have a UTV with a snow plow blade attachment that we plow our long, long driveway with in winter. We much fill a can with fuel at the gas station and bring it home. The nozzle part was cracked on the best can (left by the last owners) which was getting worse and meant spilling gasoline on the ground. (NO!) It occured to me that one of the other cans left by the last owners that seemed to be defective might have a nozzle that would work with the good can. ONE DID! It meant that my hands stunk for a couple hours, but I was able to swap out the gasket and the nozzle into the good can! WOO! I have to wait until the annual hazardous waste collection round-up to get rid of the other cans.
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So, a question for you menders.
I have a pair of jeans, maybe 8 years + old, they were my only pair of jeans for a long time. They have just developed a hole in the back of the leg, just under the butt. I am not the “show my butt to the world” kinda person.
I was going to stitch it up, but the fabric is wearing very thin all around the butt / thigh area, any recommendations?
I wouldn’t wear them out with lots of sashiko(?) type mending in that area so I don’t know whether to mend or re-purpose.
Thanks
Could it do with a large patch or interfacing (?) inside it so you dont see the support but it’s there to keep the wear from getting more pronounced? You could google “invisible mending seat of pants” to see some examples of how people have done it before? Basically, I’m thinking it would be minimally obvious to look at and you’d be protecting your posterior from further surprise exposures.
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I haven’t had the chance to try this out myself, but professional denim repair artists use a woven interfacing and a darning machine. You could probably use another piece of denim if you can’t find the woven interfacing. This shop’s IG is awesome. There are also some great Youtube tutorials on denim repair.
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That is amazing and likely way out of any budget I’ve ever had. Invisibly repaired jeans…wow. I just turn the patch into an embellishment of some kind.
I did finally narrow the legs on some of my jeans, easy fix, and I’ve always ordered longs if I can, reg are just a bit too short and longs are too long. Hence, lots of hemming.
But reweaving worn bits? wow. Those people are dedicated.
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