Mend and Make Do

[Angela Toucan]

Mend and Make Do is a moto I grew up with, but it's so gone out of fashion with our more modern culture.

Do you mend and repair stuff?
My mending skills are limited to minor household repairs (glue or basic screw driver stuff) and fabric crafts.

What was the last thing you mended?
This afternoon I repaired two pairs of my husband's jeans, and a pair of my joggers.

What was the last thing you sent to someone else to be mended?
I've just had my sewing machine mended, and had to go 2 counties away to find someone with the skill set to fix it. He's retiring soon. There are no instrument repairers locally either anymore. None of the colleges do courses for training in these skills, so I don't know what will happen when our generation all retire. Repair seems to be a dying art.

 

[jagruti patel]

I try to when I can. I hate how wasteful we have become, just toss and buy new. So I do try. Last thing I did was a pair of my husbands pj pants. I don't know how he walks, but the bottoms always get torn up!

Sent out to mend....hemming new jeans, because cannot find anything that fit length wise! Not really a mend though.

 

[scrapchyck]

I have a lot of things that could probably be mended (like towels that are tearing because I've had them for 25 years), but I just make do more than anything. I have a pair of sneakers I love but my toe has created a tiny hole. I think it would be a good idea to mend it. Most of my clothes I don't keep long enough to damage and need a repair. I tend to send things on to my favorite thrift store for them to re-sell way before they have tears. When I dropped a glass gift my daughter gave me (a dried flower pressed between glass that was in a soldered frame), I did have a friend skilled in fixing things like that take care of it. She also helps people restore their Bible covers that are falling apart.

I'm with you...I don't know what's going to happen since the next generations don't seem at all interested in learning some of these necessary skills. I'm glad my daughter at least learned to knit and my youngest has learned many mechanical skills at the factory he works in. My oldest worked for Home Depot for a long time and learned how to fix/install things. I was shocked the day he came over and replaced a broken door handle in my house!

 

[Brendazzle]

Do you mend and repair stuff?
Less mending and more reusing. We have a bunch of rugs that started life as bed sheets; I just asked people for their old sheets and made them into thick yarn. I also love tie-dyeing old shirts and cutting them to restyle them. My mending skills are a bit lacking; I can do simple hand-sewing and limited darning.

What was the last thing you mended?
A pillowcase, probably. Ours get torn a lot during pillow fights.

What was the last thing you sent to someone else to be mended?
Nothing recently. I'm waiting on help adding more fabric to my son's Tiny Superheroes cape; I have 40+ patches waiting to iron on

 

[littlekiwi]

Do you mend and repair stuff?
No, only because physically I can't do it on my own. My eyesight isn't good enough for sewing tasks and my balance isn't good enough for anything requiring a ladder. I do though ask for help to mend and repair things so it's not like I don't consider mending & repairing.

What was the last thing you mended?
Not sure now that I think about it.

What was the last thing you sent to someone else to be mended?
Nothing recently but it's not uncommon for me to give things to my mum (or previously my grandmother) to hem as a lot of pants, skirts or shirts are too long for me since I'm short. I do have a fine wool skirt that's on my to get sent of to be hemmed professionally as while I love it, it's just a bit too long and bulky for me to wear often yet I don't want to get rid of it as I like it plus the amount of money I spent on it was a lot for me even on sale. I also tend to get my good shoes resoled if the rest of the shoe is in good condition. Also every time I'm near my optometrist which is like two hours away, I get my glasses mended whether that's tightening screws, replacing nose pads, polishing the lenses.

 

[umyesh]

Do you mend and repair stuff?
Yes I can do simple sewing and simple repairs (though I still struggle with what tools are called).

What was the last thing you mended?
I sewed a Velcro strap for our weight lifting pad.

What was the last thing you sent to someone else to be mended?
I ask my mom to sew things if they’re more difficult. She’s more skilled than me.

 

[IntenseMagic]

Gosh, I mend and repair things all the time lol I'm a fixer! I recently built a new set of stairs to our front door, but the most recent thing that I mended was hemming the cuffs of a suit jacket for my son who was in a wedding. I also just sewed a hole in one of my Christmas pillows.
The last thing I sent out to mend was probably my daughter's prom dress 10+ years ago lol. If I can't mend it, out it goes usually.

 

[Angela Toucan]

Less mending and more reusing. We have a bunch of rugs that started life as bed sheets; I just asked people for their old sheets and made them into thick yarn. I also love tie-dyeing old shirts and cutting them to restyle them.

that's awesome. I turned some old sheets from friends into some rugs once for my sister's drafty farm house. My most recent upcycle was t-shirts into a patchwork blanket.

I recently built a new set of stairs to our front door,

I am totally in awe. I wish I knew how to do that.

 

[fruitysuet]

I've got near non-existent DIY skills, any make do and mends tend to be superglue and duct tape based! Saying that, a brick did come out of the steps down to my front door so I did cement that back in! Oh and I did manage to mend a couple of hoovers by buying new belts(?) and replacing them. I don't what it is but I am forever breaking hoovers. I've got another that I need to find someone local to do repairs because I think whatever has broke this time is something different.

Sewing skills are almost as poor. I can re-do hems that have come down, sew back unstitched seams and sew buttons back on, but that's about it. Last thing sent out for alterations was earlier this year for my DD's maid of honour dress to be shortened. I didn't want to mess that up so we used the same dressmaker who was altering other DD's wedding dress.

 

[Karen]

Do you mend and repair stuff? That's such a great motto! We definitely try to mend and repair as much stuff as we can. Both my hubby and I are pretty handy with tools, so we always try to fix things around our house if at all possible. I can also sew, so I try to fix clothes too if possible. In fact, my sister just visited and commented when they were getting ready to leave that it's the first time in a long time that she hasn't brought something for me to mend while they were visiting.

What was the last thing you mended?
I think the last thing I mended was a pair of shorts for my hubby, the seam along the bottom came unstitched, so it was a nice and easy repair.

What was the last thing you sent to someone else to be mended? If I can fix clothing, I won't pay someone else to fix it because I don't even know who to take it to near me and I think it would cost more to fix than to replace most things.