The Lost Art of Mending

Fix old favourites, with from Sarah Wale!

Hands up: how many of you give up on torn or outgrown garments, broken toys and household bits and pieces and put them in the recycling or rubbish bin? Because imported clothes, towels and bedding can be so inexpensive nowadays, it is tempting not to bother with mending or re-making clothes as we used to. There are very compelling reasons for doing so, however, not least of which is stemming the rise in waste slowly smothering the world. Leaving aside altruism and the good of the planet, it may be that you particularly like a special item and don’t want it to be lost just because a child has outgrown it, or there is a rip or mark on an old wardrobe favourite. Perhaps your child or grandchild has a much loved toy which has seen better days and needs a new ear, a patch on its toes, or more stuffing, but it would be the end of the world as we know it for that treasure to be lost to them? You could soon fix it up and add a few years to its life and immeasurable joy to the life of a potentially bereft small person. Most people can probably remember our mothers or grandmothers getting out their scissors, needles and thread on a Sunday afternoon. Buttons or zips were replaced, tears patched and holes darned - and that was just the mending. Then there were alterations as clothes were made to last one more season, or to clothe one more child. Hems were taken up or, more likely, let down, or seams let out or gussets inserted where there wasn’t enough seam width to allow for a rapidly growing youngster (or one’s increasing middleaged spread). Long pants were made into shorts, dresses cut down to create skirts, and all manner of other magic was wrought to transform ‘this old thing’ into a brand new pride and joy for the next in line. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t do the same today.

GIVE A DARN?

I mentioned darning earlier and here I have a confession to make: I refuse to darn cheap everyday socks – they last for ages and usually by the time a heel has worn out, so has the elastic and sole, so they really aren’t worth the bother. But thick woollen socks, without which work boots and gum boots would be unbearably uncomfortable to wear all day, are well worth bringing back to life. The elbows of knitted garments can also wear thin and are candidates for the attention of a competent needleworker. If you don’t want to darn them, it is easy to find leather or acrylic elbow patches to sew on, giving sweaters a smart new look and extending the life of the garment for a long time to come.

COMPANIONABLE

If you can do basic needlework, and have time to spare, your friends and family will beat a path to your door begging you to do their little sewing jobs. You will find great satisfaction in being useful and they will appreciate you enormously. Hand sewing and mending are oddly companionable activities. It makes a pleasant social occasion, and relieves the tedium of some of the more mundane tasks like reattaching buttons or hemming. Groups of friends can get together with their work and some refreshment, as was often the case in the olden days when it was a good excuse to visit each other’s homes, and at the same time enjoy a good gossip! To spread your skills more widely, you could put the word out locally that you are prepared to do repairs and alterations, thus earning yourself a little pocket money (though it has to be said you won’t make your fortune at it). With more advanced ability, you could offer to remodel whole garments, such as evening gowns and wedding dresses, earning a little more than with basic mending and alterations. Perhaps you like working with children and possess a modicum of patience, in which case you could teach the younger generation to accomplish the simpler mending tasks. That way they can eventually look after their own running repairs and makeovers. Many schools also welcome this sort of voluntary ad hoc instruction, as do some youth groups. A friend and I recently spent an enjoyable evening with our local St John Youth Division where the cadets, aged from 8 to 15, all learned to sew on their hard-won badges; seeing their pride and delight in their accomplishment was very rewarding. It also showed them that we oldies know a thing or two – and that there are good and useful things to do which don’t require electronic devices. From a selfish point of view, I had fun passing on my skills to a group of youngsters I might never have met and who now greet me when they see me about town.

TOY HOSPITAL

On the subject of mending, there are many cheap and cheerful (but much loved) toys in most homes, no longer played with because they are broken. Your needle and thread won’t help you so much with these but, with a bit of imagination, a screwdriver, some cocktail sticks, some elastic bands and copious quantities of the right kind of glue (known as Grandma’s Special Glue in our family) there isn’t much that can’t be put right to get a favourite toy back into the hands of those that love them. Not just toys can be mended in this way: it is also easy to make basic repairs to shoes, bags, crockery and other items that would otherwise be thrown away. My last thought on the subject of mending and altering is that even if you don’t particularly enjoy it, you will have earned the right to feel very smug about your thriftiness, at the same time as enjoying the warm fuzzies knowing you are looking after dear old Mother Earth.

Patch a hole

Easily repair a hole in your favourite piece of apparel and enjoy it for years to come.

1Cut around the hole to make a tidy square or rectangle. Trim away any loose threads. Cut a small notch at the corners of the hole, and turn the fabric inside out. Fold the square or rectangle’s 2cm edges onto the wrong side of the fabric and iron flat to hold in place. Cut a square from a matching

2 piece of fabric (from a seam or the back side of a pocket) ensuring it is at least 3cm bigger all around than the hole you are covering. With the garment inside out, put

3 the patch on top of the hole. Match the grain of the patch to the grain of the fabric. Loosely stitch the patch into position and remove any pins.

4 Fold back the 3cm excess fabric so it’s flush with the folded edge of the hole, folding the corners over each other. Insert your needle through the folded edge of the patch and stitch up diagonally, joining the two fabrics. Continue all around the square. Remove the basting thread. Use a cross-stitch to finish the

5 edges of the patch inside the garment. Cut off the tips of the patch’s corners at 45-degree angles. Fold back each edge 2cm. Cross-stitch the edges to the garment, picking up only one or two threads with each stitch. Inserting the needle from right to left creates a series of tiny Xs. Once the hole has been stitched over, iron the patch in place before turning the garment right side out.