Week 4, October 19-25: WORN
second-hand / mending / caring for things / laundering for longevity / design for longevity (bucking trends, quality materials …) / heirlooms
This week's topic is the one that I don't have much to say about. It's not that it isn't important, it's just that I don't have a ton of experience with these things. While I love the idea of shopping secondhand, I've never had much luck with finding clothes at the thrift store. Books? Yes. But not clothes. I don't know whether it's because I'm an odd size or that I just can't find clothing that I like in our area stores.
And as for mending...well, I'm trying to get better at that. I have a few things (mine and my parents') that have been sitting in my sewing room, waiting to be mended, for over a year now. Again, I'm not sure why this is a problem for me! I love the idea of mending, but I'm not very good at hand sewing so I seem to put it off.
I took some time this week to patch a hole at the knee of my oldest jeans. They're definitely my most-patched item of clothing, as you can see, and I don't leave the house in them anymore, ha. I used to try mending them in a more subtle way, but it was always visible anyway, so that's when I embraced the idea of "visible mending." :) It turns out that it's a lot more fun to use different colored thread and fabric to mend instead of trying to make the patches as inconspicuous as possible. (Though when it comes to patching clothes that I do still wear in public, I'll make more of an effort to be a bit neater.) I also added a little fox face patch to cover a hole in a cotton button up shirt...because why not?
I want to learn more about caring for my clothes to make them last longer, but as it is now, I definitely wear things until they're completely worn out. When I was little, we had two categories of clothing: good clothes and everyday clothes. We wore our good clothes to town or school or church, and our "everyday clothes" were basically play clothes. I still use that system. When I make or buy something new, it's "good." When those get a little too ragged to be worn in public, I wear them at my babysitting job. (I keep my cousins' kids, and as we're outside a lot, dressing nicely doesn't make a lot of sense.) And when it gets to the point where I'm embarrassed to wear them while babysitting, then they become everyday clothes and get worn around the house, outside, etc. Because I'm at home a lot, my good clothes don't get as much wear and last for a long time, but my everyday clothes are the ones that need mending.
You can read this week's post at Fringe Association here.