I mended All Of The Things.
I always say that if you want to save money by sewing, you should practice mending. Because it reduces the need to buy replacement items, mending saves money, and since it often just takes a moment or two, the return on your time investment is fabulous.
And that's all before we even talk about the fact that mending extends the usable life of items and keeps them out of the landfill.
(Yay!)
I did some mending this past week, and I thought I'd share because sometimes seeing other people's done tasks is motivating for me.
So, here you go!
I bought this fleece years ago for a dollar or two at Old Navy, because the shoulder seam is sewn on slightly wrong.
Long-time readers might remember it from this 2008 post, actually!
Anyway, the trim on the top of the collar was coming apart, so I sewed it back on.
It's not perfect, but I don't really care, because by this point, it's a fleece that I just I throw on with my PJ pants. It doesn't need to be a top-notch mend job.
Moving on...
When we got our new table, we bought placemats to protect it, and one of them recently began coming apart at the seam.
So I sewed it up. Super easy!
Yet another dishtowel was coming apart at the hem. Do your dishtowels do this too? I feel like mine come apart at a surprising rate. And this one was only a few months old!
It's good as new now.
And lastly, Zoe's little Calico Critter vest lost a button. This is a tiny, tiny button (see the dime for scale.)
At first, I wasn't sure how I'd even get a needle through those tiny holes, but luckily, I had one with a very small top, and I was able to sew the button on.
Phew.
Zoe was quite pleased when she found the mended vest. "So much better, Mom!"
Sometimes, it's literally the small things that make children happy. Ha.
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P.S. A quick note: TopCashBack, a program similar to Ebates, has added a new redemption feature. IF you redeem your earnings for an American Express gift card, you get a 3% bonus (same goes if you redeem for an Amazon gift card, which is what I always do.) As always, if you sign up for TopCashBack through links on my blog, you get a $10 bonus once you earn $10 in cashback.
(TCB links are my referral links.)
P.P.S. A reader alerted me to the fact that America's Test Kitchen is having a big cookbook clearance sale. These are great cookbooks at a great price! (not affiliated)
My first two major quilts - one of which is still in progress - are "salvage" quilts. I've made a lot of mistakes on them and they were not show-stoppers by any means, but they saved me a lot of memories and a lot of money as I learned how to use a machine and sew more generally. Then I got/get a new blanket out of the deal for quite a while, too. I'm ready to graduate to "fresh" fabric now, having dealt with the most difficult materials out there: stretchy old t-shirts and jeans, hoodie materials, etc. Just in time, because I now have baby quilts to make for in-laws and cousins! 🙂
It also helped me expand my sewing abilities to hem jeans (I've got strong but short legs, so I have to hem ALL pants - saves me $15/pair from not having to take them to the tailor), darn socks, and make handkerchiefs (from an old twin size sheet I loved a lot, but haven't had a twin bed in a while).
Yay for sewing!
I don't do mending very often. It seems like I put it in the mending pile then it's out of sight and out of mind. However, recently I did do some and it was very satisfying. Most of it was towels. They weren't actually in the pile, but still in use and annoying me every day. It sounds silly, but spending that little bit of time rehemming them, has made my daily life better.
I find that mending is less frustrating when I have a pile to get through. Lugging out the sewing machine to fix one little thing is a pain. So, when something comes apart, I put it in the mending pile and then I take care of things all at once.
And yes! Mended towels are way less annoying to use and fold.
I can't sew, but I do try to repair whenever possible.
Also, I have a tendency to destroy kitchen towels because I use them for so many things like wiping up anything and everything (including grease) wringing out shredded potatoes, as well as using them as burp cloths for my daughter. So my nice white towels are all stained and some have holes and have become relegated to rag status.
I am also indiscriminate about how I use my dishtowels so I finally just allowed my dishtowel drawer to become a pile of rags. With three boys our bath towels (which were thrifted to begin with) really take a beating and whenever one becomes too decrepit to really tolerate I just cut it up into rectangles (usually I can simply tear it, actually, because I am not joking about the decrepit part) and use those bits. They make great dishtowels, very absorbant and I don't care if someone wipes up red wine with them. In fact, you can clean up something really appalling and just throw it away. That has happened a couple of times and I was grateful I didn't feel required to wash that towel covered with canine excrement, for example. Gag. Beats buying paper towels any day. I do keep a coiple of nice towels on hand for the kitchen and bathrooms. They are stashed until needed, though, or they would be grabbed by the six year old to wash his muddy bike or something. Teaching my sons to be respectful of things has been an uphill battle. Lol.
I use target brand (RE) dish towels or Williams Sonoma. They seem to hold up well. I mended a husband shirt and hemmed several pairs of jeans and PJ pants. My machine stays out but I do enjoy seeing a finished fix 🙂
Having the machine out all the time would definitely make mending easier. But the desk I use to sew is also a desk that gets used for school every day, so the machine has to live in the closet when it's not being used.
Wow, that it one serious nano-sized button! Congratulations for keeping track of it until you could sew it back on. I have trouble keeping the regular sized ones.
Thank you for this post. My mending pile needs to be tended to. I procrastinate on it because I think it will be more difficult than it actually is. So tonight, during family Jeopardy! time, I will finish them off. It really won't take longer than that, I'd bet.
Gooo, Kristin! You can do it!
(and you should totally give yourself a gold star once it's done. 😉 )
I find mending by hand very therapeutic (I don't have a machine). I worked in surgery for 17 years, so I enjoy complex mend jobs. Weird, I know!
With my bifocaled eyes, don't know if I could have done the button reattachment. Great job!
My mending pile is getting quite big. It includes several nasty-to-me jobs, such as fixing the hem of work pants (requires using tiny stitches so the fix doesn't show on the outside) and applying a large patch to reinforce flannel PJs so I can reattach the button.
Mending is so easy to put off, saying you have other, more important things to do.
I hate doing that kind of stitching. So annoying. And you can't really do it while you're watching TV or something, because you have to keep a good eye on what you're doing.
Maybe you could listen to a podcast while you hem the pants?
I have TV shows (often PBS documentaries) that I can listen to, rather than watch, while I mend. I just haven't found (well, made) the time to do so. I'm close to paying someone else to do the pants ... then I think about the cost.
Strangely, part of the problem is that I'm not much of a TV watcher. If I were, I could justify it by saying "I'm not watching TV, I'm mending. Really!"
I'm impressed that Zoey managed to keep track of that tiny button after it came off. It would have been really easy for it to just disappear!
Ha! Well, Zoe noticed when it came off and told me about it right away. I had her put the vest and the button into a little bowl on the kitchen counter until I could mend it.
Otherwise, we'd totally have lost the button!
I was thinking the same thing about that button. I seriously doubt something that tiny could be kept track of at my house.
I think I would have just glued the button! Good for you!
I was worried that it would fall off again with glue, especially since I'd be gluing it to a piece of fabric.
I have glue trust issues. 😉
I am so excited to see your link at the bottom for the ATK cookbooks sale. I'm only half joking when I say the Quick Family Cookbook changed my life (and my foodie daughter's). Sooo, since I want to buy them, but clearly can't/shouldn't, do you or anyone else have any recommendations? 🙂
Ooh, looking now I see that a lot of the ones I own are now sold out! These must be selling fast.
Based on my experience with ATK, I really think any of them would be good choices. But if you like easy, maybe the one-dish suppers book would be a good option?
Our library has a decent collection of the ATK cookbooks (including the Quick Family one), so perhaps check your library! 🙂
Yes! My library has lots of ATK/CI cookbooks too. It's a great way to peruse a cookbook and decide if it's one you want to own or not.
I actually have something to add! I sew back on a button on one of my favorite vests. And I "fixed" a pair of workout pants that I had just bought. I strive to do a buy USA made thing. These came with the hem just serged. Not to my liking. Nor did I care for the waistband. So I hemmed both of the pants and folded over the waistband to a manageable size. Much happier with them now. And felt so ever productive.
I just had a mending morning on Monday. Our middle son is very slim and all of his pants need to be sized down in the waist and hemmed because he prefers them slightly too short and then when he grows I just let out the hem and mend any spots that might be worn because he also hates to part with a comfy, well-worn pair of pants. Nearly all of my sewing is for him.
I also mended a couple of small holes in a cable knit sweater I wear around the house and saved my own comfy, well-worn sweatpants with some strategic mending to make them a trifle more presentable. Still nothing I can wear in public, but better than the holey mess they were before.
I mend by hand, since I don't own a sewing machine or have any inclination to do regular sewing projects like quilts or clothing or whathaveyou, so I find sitting by a sunny window with a cup of tea and a pile of tired but favored clothes in my lap to be oddly soothing. I sewed for a couple of hours and it was lovely.
I spent the weekend wrestling with my five-year-old's pants. I swear that kid crawls over broken glass in his pants or something. They are school uniforms, so I patched 'em from the inside. Not perfect, but good enough for preschool! One is going to be shorts and I took the last INTACT pair and reinforced from the inside with a patch.
New rule: No more lined pants or gusseted knees for this child as they are too hard to repair.
Have you considered reinforcing the knees before he wears through them? The Tightwad Gazette recommended that for jeans and I thought it was a terrific idea. It's certainly helped my jeans last longer.
(Actually, I have a progression: new jeans are the "nice jeans." When they start wearing out at the knees, they get reinforced and become "everyday jeans." When they get actual holes in the knees, they become the "messy/paint jeans." When they're unwearable, they either get thrown out or become the source of reinforcement material for the everyday jeans.)
My late Mother-in-law used to do that to my husband's pants when he was growing up -- patch the knees inside when they were new. Then the hippie fads came along, and we all wore jeans patched with multiple color patches on the outside, because we were so "cool" so she started patching them with whatever she had lying around, on the outside of the jeans, after the rips started.
I actually did do this with his last intact pair with non-gussetted knees! Someone told me about Land's End Iron Knee pants, and I looked them up--they basically just have an interior patch. So I installed patches inside his $5 Walmart pants and we'll see how it goes! They were cheap and aren't his favorites, so I figured they were a good pair to experiment on. I sewed the patches in place, but the stitches aren't that visible.
I'm so glad that you alerted me to the sale. I checked out the ATK Healthy Family Cookbook from our library and my husband found me making a list of all the recipes that looked promising and frugal (there are great vegetarian ideas and even a kid-friendly section). He was going to buy it for me on Amazon, but they don't have it for new, and then I found it at ATK's site last night, but it was $24.50. Still not bad, but I wasn't sure yet. Today it's $17.50, so I went ahead and bought it. I love their Family-Style cookbooks - they are so useful and such a great resource!
I like to mend and don't take time to do it often enough. What I don't mend, though, is a zipper. If one pulls loose from the seam or breaks and needs to be replaced, I react to it as if it's a cobra. I don't know why zippers scare me so, but they do. Nearly every piece of clothing I've made is pull on or button. Now is that silly, or what?
As another plug for mending, which I think I'm up to date on. I consider it no risk sewing. I figure the item is a small hole, rip, or other problem away from the toss heap. So if I'm able to fix it -- a big pat myself on the back moment but if I can't fix it -- no great loss.
Now I'll confess, the only reason I'm up to date on mending is I'm still working on sewing reusable cloth gift bags to use for CHRISTMAS. My hope is if I start this early, they'll be done by this Christmas. They're all cut and just have to be sewn.
Kristin,
You inspired me to make reusable cloth gift bags. I saw a sale for material for $1/yard and thought of your post. So, I bought several yards. Now I just have to make them. But after I do, I won't have to individually wrap gifts for these people ever again. It's for my family, so I'm going to tell them if they return the bags, I'll put next year's gift inside. If it were me, I'd untie the bag, take the gift out, and return the bag immediately.
Such a great point! What's the worst that can happen? It'll be messed up, which is how it ended up in the mending pile anyway.
Yay about your gift bags. Such a smart idea to start now.
I need to start teaching the kids how to do this, especially for the little stuff. I was much better at tiny stitches when I had smaller fingers and better eyesight. I taught DH how to mend after we got married so he mostly does his own mending now. 🙂
I don't think this quite counts as mending, but I have a scarf that has a pattern I like and is a scarf that ties. I prefer infinity scarves since I never know how I should tie the other ones. Someone recommended that I sew the 2 ends together and turn it into an infinity scarf. So easy! (How did I not think of that?) And now I like the scarf a lot better and get much more use out of it. Win!
I did some mending of towels this week too, plus other sewing. I always forget how much I like to sew until I actually get time to do some and then I wish I could do more than just mend things!