Idea 7 – Make do and mend

It’s almost the end of September and I have avoided buying any new clothes and shoes for the whole month. The clothes at the far reaches of my wardrobe have seen the light of day following many months (if not years) in hibernation. I have visited a charity shop weekly and realised how many beautiful new and preloved clothes the lovely residents of Bradley Stoke have donated. I was a bit worried that come the 1st of October on Tuesday I would be dashing off to “the big shops” to buy a long list of things; but I actually don’t think I need anything. Who’d have thought.

This week I been looking at clothes which I love but are in need of some sort of repair. If you are like me you discovered a hole in a pocket or jean knee and then what do you do… repair it immediately… Nope. I place said item in a pile on the side. A pile that has a few other bits that I have been meaning to do something about but not got round to doing. This week I’m going to try and do something about ‘that pile’ of clothes which still have lots of life left in them.

Interesting fact from Oxfam – It take around 7800 litres of water to grow enough cotton to make one pair of jeans. So how can we keep our clothes lasting longer.

You got it ‘Make do and mend’.

I wondered what a search engine would throw up to solve my modern day repair problems. Well the first thing was not a YouTube video as expected instead I was taken to the Imperial War Museum website to this article.

Yep we have been here before and, like the answers to so many of our modern day problems, they have been solved main times over before. Have a read of these war time poster as they are just as relevant today despite the fact we don’t have clothes rationing.

My job for this week is pictured below. My son’s jeans had a rough time when he was 1 turning 2. Learning to walk is tough. Lots of crawling, walking and falling took its toll yet it was tougher still on his knees as the picture suggests. So to keep these jeans going for the next baby I’m calling upon my GCSE textile days and picking up a needle and thread again. I tried to do one with an invisible stitch… not so invisible but I tried! The other has benefitted from a train themed patch. Time will tell if my repair job was successful. Next job is to repair a hole in the bottom of a coat pocket so I can start using both pockets again. If you fancy joining a sewing and craft group there is one in Bradley Stoke and one in Almondsbury. The Bradly Stoke journal has details of both groups.

So dig out the needle, thread, thimble, scissors or anything else that the posters or how to videos on the internet suggest. Trust me in the time it takes you to choose a film on a popular streaming app you will have completed that repair job.