Domestic Maintenance Craft
It isn’t the most interesting or luxurious of crafts, but darning socks, sewing holes, and re-attaching buttons are necessary tools against the “Made in
After Tyrone and I had been dating for a couple of weeks, he wore an awesome striped shirt from the seventies in a mustard and light blue out on a date. The shirt embodied his classic style, and I was enamored with it, right down to the hole that was beginning to appear on the shoulder. I offered to fix it, and really enjoy fixing his clothes ever since. It may really sound like an anti-feminist thing to say, but I really enjoy providing him with this outwardly physical form of affection.
But there is another reason. Tyrone is no stranger to sewing his clothes. Last night I put 4 new buttons on a blue shirt. A closer look at the shirt showed blue thread reinforcing the arm hole, as well as thick white thread clinging on to the existing mismatched white buttons. I know he appreciates it because he’s mended his favorite clothes too.
I mended four of my sweaters, 3 pairs of socks, and two of Ty’s shirts. I had an urge I had not had before. One of his shirts was a navy blue jersey knit material, and had already started to unravel in places. I really wanted to fix the shirt in a contrasting bright red cross-stitch. I didn’t but it may be something to experiment with in the future. Mended clothes can sometimes look old or cheap, but there is a new trend with T-shirts from LA to stitch in contrasting thread. Some neatly done cross stitching may up-cycle the garment and adds an additional layer of fashion, and attention to hand-embellished detail.
It was a fun thing to do and contemplate while watching the Project Runway finale, or maybe it is just the cold medicine talking.