Make and Mend : the Mending

This year I've joined a Make and Mend challenge hosted by the New Vintage Lady.  The three rules are quite simple:  mend five items from your fix-it pile; repurpose one piece of fabric; and sew a new project from fabric you already have.  The challenge comes in the actual doing.  How long have we all stared at our mending pile?  And more often than not, those torn clothes get cut into shop rags rather than repaired and hung back in the closet.  So this was just the motivation I needed.  I started with the ever present mending pile (always the most dreaded for me).

I'll explain from top of the pile down.  I patched a corner tear in my son's jeans (right on the tush, don't ask).  I re-sewed the split back seam on my wool gingham cigarette pants (holiday eats were great this year!).  I hemmed the edge of an old bath towel (this was sooo close to being a shop rag).  And I added a hook and eye to the waistline of my red wool skirt (always try to get away without it).  The last item was my husband's unmentionables, and I promised him I wouldn't take a photo of it.  lol 

Both the towel and my hubby's boxers would have ended up in the rag bag were it not for this challenge.  When our clothes are too stained or too worn, I cut off the buttons and rip out the zippers, whack them into good sized pieces and send them out to the barn for rags.  I've been known to mend my husband's flannel shirts over and over.  First time it's a patch on the burn hole (fun with welders!).  Next time it's free-motion stitching on the frayed cuffs and a few lost buttons to replace.  Then it's larger patches over the first round of patches.  Some days I just throw my hands up!  But maybe, just maybe, next time when he brings me his flannel shirts, his Carhartz overalls, his boxers, I'll take a harder look, grit my teeth and mend that hole just one more time!

 Join up today!