"Serve God, Love Me. And Mend."

-Much Ado About Nothing, Act V, scene II

I love that line.  Benedict says it to Beatrice to help comfort her. Beatrice is freaking out about the plight of her cousin, Hero, and also suffering from a bad cold, as I recall. I find it a great mantra when I'm recovering from, well, anything.

I sometimes think it's a holy act to mend something.

There's just something about the remaking of something.  I like it better than sewing an item from scratch.
When making something new, I have to destroy something perfectly good, (a length of cloth) with infinite possibilities, and limit it down to just one possibility.

Giving an old thing new life, however, that's just lovely. 

There's nothing destructive about it, only constructive.

Last month I mended a hanky. I've never been so proud of myself.
It was a beautiful vintage hanky I'd gotten from my Aunt with diagonal drawn thread-work that makes my sister B go weak in the knees.  I accidentally caught it with the end of a scissors while I was working on something else.  Good mending is very close to embroidery.  It requires careful, even stitches and a certain sort of patience.  The mend, having been done successfully, is only visible from a few inches away, doesn't mar the hanky, and keeps the rip from slowly destroying the hanky.


It's especially nice when I can, through my own ingenuity, make it better than it was.

For example, grease stains are the bane of my existence.  They can happen at any moment, and I can never tell if I've gotten them out until the piece of clothing is dry and it's far too late to budge that stubborn stain. A couple of my favorite shirts would've gone the Way of All Flesh, if it weren't for a little ingenuity on my part. Instead of pitching them, I decided to embroider them.

Now I have a couple of shirts that look like they came from Anthropologie.  Simple crewel work does wonders, and stitches up pretty quick. Well, pretty quick for embroidery.

Inspired by this, I mended a couple pairs of my brother's pants.  One I hand mended, but the other had huge bleach stains at the bottom (why mom uses bleach I'll never know).  So I turned them into shorts.

I've also been transforming some pieces of Annie's.  She gave me a pair of sleep pants that she'd worn out the cuffs on (they're far too long, so she's been having fun stepping on them).  She thought they were scrap-worthy, but I used the printed edging of an old pillow case to make new cuffs and a patch pocket, and gave them back to her instead.  She's excited because they're sooo comfy!

I also installed a drawstring waistband on a skirt to help it fit better, and turned a housedress into a smock top with a tie back.

Isn't the strawberry print totally cute?!  I'm using the bottom for quilting, and for a baby bib for a friend.  She's wearing her new shirt backwards in the picture.  The pipings supposed to go in the front.

I also replaced a strap on a purse I got at the thrift store.  It's doing time while my purse made out of ties gets a new strap, sides, and lining.
the original strap was a thin leather thing that did nothing for the purse.  So I removed the clasps at either ends, and used them to make a new strap out of this gorgeous ribbon and a heavier woven strapping.  It didn't take too long, and now I love this purse so much, I may not go back to my old one, even when it's makeover is completed.

I love being productive.  At night, it makes me feel as if I've earned my rest.