Make Do And Mend

If you look up the phrase, “Make Do and Mend”, you will find that it began during WWII, when people were encouraged to not be wasteful with their resources. I feel like this is a value that needs a resurgence for today! With consumerism, fast fashion, and the fashion industry being one of the biggest environmental polluters, “Make Do and Mend” is ready for a comeback. Not to mention that your budget will thank you! Why buy something new when you can fix the things you already have?

So many things can be saved and reused with a bit of mending. I thought it would be fun to show some mending projects that I have done, as well as some others that Michelle and Elizabeth have done.

A friend of mine called one day. He daughter had bought a new dress, and her roommate’s dog decided to chew it up. The roommate offered to buy her a new one, but it was no longer available in her size. She asked if I had any way to fix it.

Of course I did! The dog had chewed the bottom part of the dress.

Since the chewed part was on the bottom ruffle of the dress, I decided to take off the bottom, all the way around the bottom of the dress, and replace it. I just so happened to have some ruffle trim laying around.

Bad dog!

And here it is, with a new ruffle added to the bottom, and as good as new!

Mending saved this dress from becoming garbage, and saved money since it didn’t need to be replaced.

Elizabeth had a tank shirt that she does yoga in. The trim began to come apart from the body of the shirt. Normally this would mean it’s time was done, but no!

Elizabeth carefully pinned the trim back to the body of the shirt, then sewed it back together.

No waste here! Her yoga tank is back together, and ready to go!

A fun and weird fact about Elizabeth is that, she likes to twirl! She is always twirling on the ball of her feet, which means holes in your socks. Not wanting to be wasteful, and always wanting to be frugal, Elizabeth took on the task of mending her socks.

What was once destined for the garbage bin, are now made useful again! The holes were closed and the socks were ready to twirl!

Elizabeth will get many more wears out of her socks, thanks to a simple mending job.

My husband, Michael, has some old work jeans that he loves to wear. He caught them on something in the garage, and tore a hole in them.

It was a two sided tear, but I knew I could fix it.

I used the zig zag stitch on my sewing machine. Number 05 in the picture below.

I went back and forth over the tear, closing the tears and making them usable for a little while longer.

Years ago I had made this dress. The zipper in it broke, and needed to be replaced. Rather than get rid of a dress with a broken zipper, I took out the old broken zipper, and made it like new.

Pinning in the new zipper.

And now it’s back in my closet, ready to be worn again.

My sister Michelle had an old denim skirt that used to belong to our Grandma. The elastic in the waistband was old and brittle. I opened up the casing and took out the old elastic. I ran new elastic through the waistband. I used a safety pin to pull the elastic through the casing.

And Michelle’s broken skirt got new life!

A simple fix made it completely wearable again.

My friend Christina was having a wardrobe malfunction. The trim of her favorite work jacket was coming off. Christina works at a very busy hospital as an RN. She needed her jacket to be in top working order, so she could be in top working order!

On the other sleeve, the seam was beginning to come undone.

I quickly stitched up the trim on the first sleeve.

I then sewed back the seam, and reinforced it for good measure. Jacket and Christina were in tip top shape for helping others!

This is a very common problem with shirt pockets. The corners aren’t sewn well when they are made, and the pockets start to come off.

Rather than back stitch to reinforce the pocket, I like to do this triangle on the top corners to make it stronger. It looks neater, and really is very strong.

My cousin Russell bought some pants to go hunting in. His hunting trip was coming up fast and he had a hard time finding camo pants in his size. He ordered some online but they were too big around the waist, and to long. He wouldn’t have time to return them and buy others, so he asked if I would take them in at the waist, and hem them to the length he needed.

I pinched the waist band to take in some of the excess.

I zig zag stitched the outside to help hold the fabric in place. It’s not the prettiest job, but it’ll work!

I then hemmed them by doing an “original” hem. This keeps the factory hem on them, while making them shorter. You fold them half of the needed excess, and stitch them all the way around.

Then turn the original hem down and top stitch them.

They were ready to go hunting!

Elizabeth had a rip in her jeans, and wanted to fix them. Another very common problem!

She used a denim iron on patch on the inside of her pants to reinforce the stitching she was going to do.

She matched the thread to her pants as closely as she could. Then she practiced her zig zag.

She placed her needle over the ripped area.

And zig zag stitched back and forth.

The end result! Fixed pants, and you can barely see where the rip was!

In the case of Russell’s hunting pants, knowing simple sewing tricks can make store bought clothes fit right.

Knowing a few sewing basics can help your clothes last longer and look better! I would encourage anyone with some of these basic wardrobe malfunctions to google quick fixes for yourself. It is very rewarding to be able to breath new life into something that is worn out. Make the things you have last you for as long as possible.

Little changes can make a big difference. Try to make your clothes last, I’d love to hear about your mending stories!

As for me, onto the next!