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lola 21
Mending
Last
Sunday I sat down and
did a little mending: A jacket and a
coat each needed a button sewn on;
the hem on pair of wool slacks had
unraveled in some places and needed
to be redone; and the collar of a turtleneck
sweater had a hole about as big as
a finger that needed repairing.
Since it had been a long time since I’d
done any mending, I was pleased that
I was still able to thread a tiny needle
quite ably. I had to think for awhile
about how to redo the unraveled hem,
after initially attempting a whip stitch
from the wrong angle. But I was done
with all four jobs in about an hour.
As I sat under a bright lamp in the
winter’s dusk, checking one mending
job after the next off my list, I wondered
how many people even mend
anymore.
I don’t mend as much as my mother—
from whom I learned all the mending
I know how to do—and certainly not
as much as my grandmothers did. I
don’t know how to darn, for example,
so when a hole appears in a sock, that
sock goes into the trash (or into my
collection of cleaning rags, to be used
for everything from window washing
to shoe shines).
I don’t mend out of financial necessity,
but because I was brought up to
believe that you don’t throw away
anything that can still be put to use,
whether it be food, clothing or equipment.
Also, I like a lot of my clothes
and simply want to hang on to them.
In English
by Lizzy
lizzy@lola-magazin.de
So mend I do, whenever I can, and I
even kind of enjoy it. Sewing by hand
has a calming effect on a person. It
forces you to slow down and concentrate
fully on one thing. I’m sure anyone
who knits, crochets, or does any
other kind of needlework (none of
which I ever mastered, unfortunately)
will tell you the same. And when
you’re done, you have something in
your hands that you did yourself.
The throwaway society doesn’t exactly
encourage this kind of behavior,
and even I sometimes break down and
get rid of something that’s generally
in good shape and replace it, for the
simple fact that obtaining the part
needed and making the repair is often
more costly, in terms of both time
and money, than replacing whatever
the object is. It may be a cliché, but
it’s true: They don’t make ‘em like
they used to. Things are just too cheap
these days.
Happily, a combination of trends is
elevating the status of good-quality
products—as well as ensuring that the
art of mending and other methods of
economizing don’t die out entirely.
On the one hand, there’s the new frugality
born out of recent and ongoing
recessions, such as described at
frugal.org.uk, frugalvillage.com, livingonadime.com
(with “11 tips from
Penny Pinching Mama to help you get
started”), and numerous other Web
sites. And on the other, there’s the
realization that using what we have
wisely does all of us good—body, soul,
and beyond.
neu
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