I've been mending things!

Guys, guys, guys! I've just broken a six-week stint of not buying any sewing stuff! I'm pretty proud of this, and had to finally break the fast for new needles and thread. I have some gift sewing due as well, for which I'm missing some fabric. Off to Raystitch...

Anyway, the breaking of this fabric fast has been a good time to round up some mending and reworking I've been doing over the past few months. It's an odd conflict between the refashioning/alterations world and the make-from-scratch world. I personally still think refashioning is an alien concept, and am sure I'm not alone in prefering to make new things from a rectangle of fabric. I like my new pristine fabric and my carefully chosen matching, functional notions.

Generally in the RTW world, there's a bit of a stigma around repairs and mending. When something's broken, you believe it's unfixable and you throw it away. There's an interesting segment on an old episode of The Forum, the Sixty-Second Idea to make mending an artform,which sticks in my head. Namely for how this idea translates into the self-sewn world: why repair my project when I can make it anew?

Actually, it's almost like a time capsule. You see whether you were thinking straight, whether you were in a rush, what types of materials you liked, the colours of threads you used.


I have been repairing and remaking a few things recently. B's bag was showing some stress on the edges so they got reinforced.

I lengthened my black zig-zag trousers and had to totally reopen my green trousers to make more room for my backside. Yes, I actually went back and fixed them and now have a wearable pair of trousers! And the button doesn't pop off!

The no-face policy in these pctures is because there's a towel on my head...

My Long Way Back Home messenger bag fell apart quite quickly once it was made. The outer fabric was a medium-weight dress linen. It couldn't stand up to daily abuse, despite interfacing etc. So I finally took the whole thing apart and replaced the outer fabric. To be honest, it was a real chore. Repairing something you've made is fine enough, particularly if you did a shoddy job in the first place, but because the textiles aged unexpectedly? That's heartbreaking. (In good faith I did everything right the first time!) But it's fixed and I still don't like the new version as much as the old one. Ah well.

Anyway,I have oodles of projects and drafts to be getting on with. I may even share the results of breaking my fabric fast with you. It's shameful, but hey...we all like pretty fabric don't we?

Stay safe,
K