No New Clothes : Mending What We’ve Got

We’re charging into 2011 with the same goal we’ve had since May 2009:

NO NEW CLOTHES!

The No New Clothes Challenge is starting to get harder and harder as our clothes get worn.  Favorite jeans are going to need to be replaced this year.  Extra socks and underwear were already purchased.

And okay – I admit that I bought some new clothes for a huge family photo.  (It feels a bit awkward to wear the same sweaters you wore for Christmas photos the years before, you know?  I searched through everything I had, and sure enough, I’d also proceed to find a very well loved family picture with me in that exact same top.  So there.  I’ve come clean!  I didn’t go totally no new clothes.  But the whole idea of this challenge is to be conscious and stop buying new clothes that we DON’T NEED.  I’m going to say that I needed that sweater.)

So there’s a little challenge for all of you:  can you resist buying clothes that you don’t need?

We’re going to keep trying.  With that, I’ve definitely had to kick up the mending a notch.  This is my mending basket.  You know I’m a sucker for fabric baskets.

I try to keep it relatively empty.  Obviously, I did not do so well.  Last night, I found myself mending the following:

  • 2 pairs of pants – fallen off buttons (too much holiday consuming??)
  • 1 pair of pants – one huge butt hole worn through (yeah.. these just became house pants!)
  • 6 socks – here’s the tutorial for that one
  • 1 sweater – a hole under each arm (don’t ask me how I managed to do that)
  • 2 fabric shopping bags – several burst seams (again – too much holiday consuming?!)

I used a darning stitch for the socks and pants patching.  Here’s a handy tutorial for that.  Zig zags and straight stitches were all it took for my sweater armpits (that sounds lovely) and shopping bags.  All easy peasy.

Sewing buttons with a machine is really easy, too.  My machine has a button stitch.  (Check your manual to see if yours does, too.)  Now I guess you’re supposed to buy a special Button Sewing Super Sewing Foot.  But I’m cheap.  I didn’t do that.  Plus I decided to sew my first button on a machine on a Sunday in Germany when everything must be closed by law.

So I just use a freehand quilting foot.  (This one is Bernina #29.)

All the foot needs to do is:

  1. hold down the button
  2. provide unblocked space for the needle to puncture the fabric, not the foot

Super easy with a quilting foot.  So everything at our house is patched and ready to go for the new year!

Oh wait.  Almost everything.  (sigh)

How about you guys?  Are you menders and darners or more of the “Oh darn!” and into the trash can kind of family?