Today is Thursday and when I was a girl, my mother
and one of her "besties" would get together
Thursday afternoons.
That they had a cup of tea sounds cozy, but I rarely
remember my mom drinking tea or coffee.
What they did do was gather up their mending baskets
and darn socks and sew on buttons while they chatted.
I've tried mending socks in recent years but
it seems they are made so cheaply and are so thin
that darning them actually causes a new hole.
I have a favorite blouse that has a tear in it.
It will be hard to mend but I'm going to try.
How about you…do you have a basket
with mending waiting patiently for you?
'Darn' and 'Socks' are only used in the same sentence if I'm frustrated. I only buy heavy wool socks, but when they're shot, I make the upper part into part of a draft dodger for the door (makes me feel better). I do occasionally sew on a button and will mend jeans or a shirt or a baby blankie that's been brought back to me by one of the grands, but that's about the extent of my mending. I might do more of it if it was a social thing, like your mom and her friend had.
ReplyDeletePodso,
ReplyDeleteYes!
I have two tablecloths that need hemming on each end!
Luckily, there is no time limit to when they need to be repaired!
Good luck with repairing your blouse, dear friend!
Fondly,
Pat
Does sewing on an occasional button count? I haven't hemmed a garment since college. Back then, I found it was easier to staple the hem in rather than sew it in. I'd rather have a cup of coffee and a chat--perhaps with someone who does mend and would lend me a hand!!
ReplyDeleteBest,
Bonnie
Dotsie, I seem to use my sewing machine more for mending than for sewing something new. I agree some things are just not able to be saved. ♥
ReplyDeleteI'm a button sewer too, otherwise, no, I don't do mending unless it is essential like a split seam. But socks...never! Though my Grandma taught me to darn beautifully.
ReplyDeleteNo mending basket for me...I wasn't lucky enough to get the sewing gene everyone else in the family got. Let's put it this way, I would rather scrub a toilet than sew a button on...does that tell you anything?
ReplyDeleteI'm imagining the two of them stitching and chatting - your mother relating stories about you no doubt Dotsie!
ReplyDeleteAs you say, nothing is manufactured to last today - it's a terrible throw away society.
At the mo I'm up for a new food processor and liquidiser.
No, but I do have ironing!
ReplyDeleteI mended something this week but I try to mend it when I see it needs it so I don't have a basket of mending. I have a basket of unfinished projects though. Hugs!
ReplyDeleteOh dear...I am not a mender. I'm a buyer! I love the idea of a mending basket, though!!
ReplyDeleteI don't have a basket of mending. I usually take care of things right away if there is a tear. I don't darn socks. But, you reminded me that I need to wash the slipcovers and do a few repairs. I don't want to repair them because they are big and bulky, but I certainly don't want to ever make slipcovers again so tomorrow I will be repairing them.
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely weekend.
I don't have a basket of mending either and will sew buttons on as required - but not hubby's! His mother was a seamstress and he learned to sew his own on, very well I might add.
ReplyDeleteThe socks are rather thin these days and because I walk hard on my heels mine wear through in no time. I do like the idea of sitting and mending or crafting with a friend over tea.
Yes, in fact, I have a laundry basket full of mending. Shocking admission. Perhaps I should bring downstairs to sit by my easy chair. My mother and her besties drank coffee...lots and lots of coffee.
ReplyDeleteI left out an "it."
DeleteI really don't. I do hand sew, never learned how to use a machine and every once in awhile I like to make a table runner or curtain this way or with fabric tape. So I do have a little basket with some fabric and it calls my name sometimes!
ReplyDeleteJane
I learned to darn as a girl - it's a skill that now seems obsolete. Buttons, seams, hemming....those I do as needed. I love to stitch with company though!
ReplyDeleteMy mending basket was always full when I had children to mend for, but too often they would grow out of the garment before I got to it! For a short while after I became an empty-nester the mending diminished, but now it is a huge pile again. Now it holds more things that need a little altering.
ReplyDeleteI will do some of my socks, but I had given up on my husband's socks, which were inexpensive to buy and hard to darn in such a way that the darned spot didn't bother his feet.
When I go to my daughters' houses I usually take my sewing basket and tackle their mending piles, because I know how hard it is to get to in a busy household.
Though I love to do needlepoint and counted cross-stitch, mending is less appealing to me. I have disliked doing hand work on clothing since I was a child when Mother would make a skirt for me and I had to hem all three yards of material. I have to say that I really don't have mending. If the button falls off I try to do it right then. And I just realized that I only have a few articles of clothing that have buttons. Hmmm. Funny how we all a different perspective on this topic. Wishing you a grand weekend
ReplyDeleteI haven't darned a sock in as long as I can remember, but I do remember having a mending basket. We have really become a very wasteful society. My mother would never have considered throwing out a sock because it had a hole.
ReplyDeleteNot a mending basket, but I do try to repair simple tears and of course, replace buttons. I think socks used to be knit better and you could repair them, but now they are cheap and through away, even if you don't want to be wasteful.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a mending basket, but I do regularly hem jeans, repair backpack & purse straps or ripped shirts. The one time I tried to darn socks I made an uncomfortable seam that bothered me so bad I just through the pair away.
ReplyDeleteNo mending basket here, either, but I will repair seams and sew on buttons as needed. Sewing from scratch is so much more enjoyable than mending. I used to darn my husband's heavy wool work socks many years ago, but the dress socks he now wears are impossible to mend.
ReplyDeleteI have a coat that needs buttons sewing back on and typical me can't find them now
ReplyDelete