It is sock wearing weather. Now, I do have a batch of me-made wool socks that should keep me warm and toasty this winter. But there is also a box of wool and cotton socks sitting in the sewing workspace waiting for some make do and mend attention. Not the American band, rather I'm talking about the act of taking care of one's clothing.
Make do and mend: To maintain one's possessions for as long as possible, repairing rather than replacing them when needed, with the goal of not buying and/or consuming more than is necessary.
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I'm not sure if it's a sign of the times with consecutive interest rate hikes to try and cool eye-brow raising inflation and talk about a 2023 recession coming but there seems to be a lot of focus on the bookstore shelves dedicated to mending. Could mending become the cool thing to do?
It appears so. Lladybird and WinnipegSews along with so many others offer mending workshops. Mending has moved from the bookstore shelves to sewing community gatherings. This is wonderful news. Taking care of what we have has so many benefits not only for individuals but the community at large by keeping our possessions out of the landfill as long as we can.
The chill in the air nudged me to pull out a couple of wool socks to mend. I used an old lightbulb to fill the interior of the sock and give a curved surface to sew. Then I cut out some "patches" from an old wool sweater that no longer fits and threaded my needle with silk thread.
Then I got to work with some visible sewing stitches working in a circular direction from the outside edge moving towards the centre.
IIRC, mending books started showing up on shelves 3-4 years ago, not too long after those horrendous garment factory disasters. Then with covid, people started looking for craft-ish things to try. Why not try mending clothing when you can't easily get out to buy more new ones?
ReplyDeleteAs much as I like to support the book industry, I haven't bought a mending book. Not sure why. I guess because the shelves are stuffed already? And so far, other than the trend toward visible mending, I didn't really see anything new in them.
Well done on the socks.
Love that you mended your socks. That sweater is an amazing perfect match. I love to mend. I purchased only one book and that was after looking at many. and it is the book by Erin Lewis - Fitzgerald. I felt the others did not have enough new for me compared to her's and I liked her philosophy. I learned a lot from it.
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