As a grateful person, I want to take care of the quality garments friends and family have gifted me.
As a frugal person, I want to protect my investments.
As a clumsy person, I'm always spilling things on my clothes and having to wash them a lot.
If I find an outfit that works, but a piece of it develops a hole or stain, I don't want to hunt through eight stores to find something that's close, but not really the same as the garment I can't wear any more, which throws MY ENTIRE WORK WEEK BALANCE OUT OF WHACK.
So I started getting interested in the how and why of mending clothes. I started searching for books:
I got very excited about this. If a cheap t-shirt got a hole, I'd try to sew it up. If a hem split, I'd try to repair it. It was not always pretty, since I would haphazardly attempt a fix with only the materials I had lying around the house (i.e.: not much). After a while, I realized this wasn't working terribly well and did not result in pieces I still wanted to wear. I found I didn't have patience to learn from the books and wanted some more visuals.
So I leveled up.
Realizing quick thread fixes wouldn't work for worn-through socks or elbow holes, I started learning how to darn, which led me to this tutorial on CreativeBug (free with your HDL card):
This taught me some basic darning techniques, but also introduced me to the idea of crochet patches, which are more flexible and perfect for rounder mends, like elbows, knees, and heels. I liked the teacher's slow teaching style and focus on only the basics.
The only difficulty was, I didn't know how to crochet. No problem, though, because I found:
After I started practicing crochet in order to practice the mend, I realized I quite enjoyed it and starting poking around in the crochet books:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Amigurumi
So we've come full circle! Back to books.
If you're interested in (or already enjoy!) mending clothes, or sewing, or crocheting, you may be interested in an upcoming series of programs focused on learning the techniques. We can all learn and practice together!
