Mending pile... do you mend?

[WiddlinDiddlin]

Apparently I am odd for mending things - currently sat sewing up DP's jeans he has managed to rip in mysterious circumstances... all I got was 'I dunno'... they just exploded off him. Mentioned it to a friend on the phone and she thinks its odd, no one does that these days!

Anyway, do you mend stuff, am I odd for mending things, having a pile of mending to work through, saving bits of fabric for mending things?

(Before anyone leaps in, he can mend things, I offered because he was busy doing stuff I can't do.)

I mend, but I do find that if eg the arse or knees are going out of jeans, then it’s because the fabric is wearing thin. So it becomes a never ending task.

in fact, I have some favourite socks, that seem to be wear once darn once — once I have strengthened one bit, the next bit goes.

Yes but I don't have a 'pile'. I just do things as they arise.

My OH and MiL mend things. Thank goodness.

I do mend. But they keep making the eyes on the needles smaller and smaller so I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to.

Yep, although I don't have a 'mending pile', family members just know to 'leave it on Mum's chair' if something needs sewing!

I've added some fresh velcro to a hot water bottle cover and sewn up some stitching on a seem of one of eldest DD's favourite Bowie t-shirts so far this week. I find it quite relaxing and it makes me feel 'very Mum-like', if that makes any sense?!

I've a granddaughter who posts me her jeans for mending. Also buys vintage stuff that needs Nana's tlc.

I mended my oven - needed a new heating element. I'm still annoyingly smug about that to this day.

(also mend jeans, jumpers, socks, parasols)

I take ripped things to a seamstress to be repaired. I'm short so I often have to get jeans and trousers taken up there too. I feel a little bad about not having the skills to repair things myself but good about supporting a local business. I do sew on buttons at home.

I haven't tried darning with a mushroom, but I do remember being unbelievably chuffed with myself when I got good enough at knitting to fix some holes in my dads favourite knee high socks (knitted for him by my grandma some 30 years previously - same grandma who gave up on teaching me to knit and was rather unpleasant about my lack of skills at the age of 5!)... Just being able to look at the knitting and 'read' the stitches to know how to fix those holes... I felt I had properly achieved something (And my Dad was impressed and thats rare!).

Then the old bugger realised I could knit and I had to knit him another pair of knee high socks which he requested in hot pink and purple stripes. They took some time to do, but they came out well, despite it being my first go at properly adjusting a pattern to fit a particular persons feet/ankles.

@BrandyandGinger I think knowing who CAN mend and using a small business is as good as mending yourself - I have a real fear one day we will realise we have NO ONE who has these skills anymore!

They go into my sewing box first. They can live there for a while before being mended. Only small unimportant things. I enjoy it if I have some spare time.

I work with teens and at my old work place I was called upon to mend split seams, holes in pockets, rips in coats etc. For most of them, it was like magic that I could fix a seam or hem, or sew on a button and it not be visible afterwards - as nobody in their family could sew.
I once worked with a boy who was very much in need of some nurturing, I sewed up a split seam in his hat, and he was very grateful. Next day he arrived at school with a carrier bag full of mending for me to do.

I do mend. I don't have lots, I don't tend to rip things, but if you have clothes for a while, hems will come down, buttons will loosen and so on.

My Mum used to do it (wartime child) although I don't remember her 'teaching' me. I learned to sew at school, and still have a sewing machine

I sew but absolutely hate mending and I'll put sewing badges onto uniform in that category too.

I remember a new friend was delighted that I could sew. She kept finding shopping bargains and bringing them around for me to alter as they were too big. Didn't ask just assumed.
They stayed in a pile for years with me feeling more and more frustrated. In the end I put everything in a large carrier bag and handed them back.

Another friend gave me her child's cubs uniform and numerous badges to sew on, and a queue of other mothers were rapidly making the same noises. I firmly said that I don't even sew my own child's badges. That stopped thankfully before anyone asked further.

I have occasionally mended something or sewn a button back on. But I sew for pleasure mainly. Mending is a chore.

My mum trained as a nursery nurse in the late 1940s, and she was taught to darn. She would darn our dresses, and I grew up with her mending things, so I do too. I recently went on an online visible mending course, so have started to darn socks, as I like wool socks which are hard to find and expensive. I've also started doing the lovely Japanese visible darning Sashiko on denim. It's easy to do if you're precise, and use a special pencil for guidelines that then washes out.

I have a backpack that I love that I keep mending as I haven't seen one I like as much.

I don’t know if it’s as much carelessness as so many clothes are so shoddily made these days

I find it hard to understand people saying they can't sew on a button or sew up a seam, but I guess it's me taking it for granted as my Mum showed me how. It's really not hard through! Also, wonderweb is wonderful!

I always have a mending pile. DH & DD are two of the world's most careless people when it comes to their clothes. I refuse to darn socks though, DH seems to wear them out so fast I'd never manage to get anything else done, but he's got used to wearing them holey.

I am going to investigate Sashiko.