The Torn Pocket

I just mended a slightly torn pocket on one of my husband's dress shirts. I know this may not seem like much, but my mantra over the last few years has been "I don't darn, I don't mend". After so many years of raising kids and husbands, I feel that I've done my share of mending. And I don't even get the whole darning of socks thing! My mom had one of those wooden balls with a handle that she would shove up the ripped sock and proceed to sew the hole. Then when you tried to actually wear a darned sock, you'd wind up with a blister because there was a lump of thread where that hole used to be!

My mom tried to teach me how to sew on a button, but I decided it was easier to just do a loop around the side of the shirt instead of going back and forth through all those holes. Couldn't button the shirt when I was done, mom wasn't too happy, had to do it again - the right way!

My proudest mending job was about 35 years ago. My husband had a three piece suit and a cream-colored polyester shirt that he wore with it. While ironing his shirt (another thing I've given up!!) I burned a hole just below the collar in the back. Not exactly burned, more like melted! I don't know what they made those shirts out of back then, but the danged stuff stuck to my iron and I never quite got all of it off. Since we had only been married about a year, he was very sympathetic to my plight. But it WAS his favorite shirt! So I cut a 2-inch round piece from the tail and patched the hole below the collar. Nice, dainty little stitches, but it was still a patch. He could only wear the shirt when he wore the vest. He got a few more days out of it until the temperatures hit 100 and the vest had to go.

I also had a really cool sewing machine when the kids were little. It did button holes, embroidered, gathered, something called smocking - all kinds of great things. Little interchangeable cams with ducks, flowers, miscellaneous shapes, poodles. That began a sewing frenzy for me. Made the kids pajamas for several years, t-shirts, blouses for Jenni, purses for me, bedspreads, pillows - all kinds of things. Never smocked (at least not that I know of!).

But those days are gone. I no longer have the eyesight or patience to sew, and mending is something I do when the item is still too new to pitch out. Like my husband's shirt. Just hope he doesn't think this is a "new" me!!