Thursday, August 13, 2015

Ironing and Mending

When I was a girl my mom always had a pile of ironing on her ironing board. She would get motivated and iron the whole pile every couple of months. There were many dresses that I only wore when she ironed them. Sometimes I would outgrow those dresses before she completed ironing. I think most of those were hand me downs and she would have bought no-iron dresses if it was possible. Fast forward to when I have my own children and I rarely iron clothes. My iron is rarely used besides ironing tablecloths for special occasions and for sewing.

When my Lambs grow up they are going to remember that I always had a huge pile of mending. I sit down about once a year and mend everything in a couple of days. I decided this would be my mending week. I did surgery on two stuffed animals. Most of the t-shirts were from Lamb 2-even at age 9 he still manages to cut his shirt some times while he's cutting paper. I had various other small mending projects. Some of those were to try to sell at the used kids store with very minor holes that were easy to fix. Some of the mending pile was evaluation if it was worth fixing or keeping. Anything that Lamb 3 has outgrown or would outgrow soon is not worth the mending time. I removed the buttons (for crafts) from some of those and put them in the trash. When it is my mending week I understand why I only do this once a year. Each item needs to be evaluated separately of how and what to fix. I make piles by color so I have to change the thread and bobbin as little as possible. Some items take more thought than others.

Lamb 2 and 3 are thrilled to have two of their forgotten stuffed animals back. When it is time to put the clean clothes away next time all the Lambs are going to be glad to see a few more of their clothes. I am hoping to complete the pile this week and not have a huge pile in my bedroom.


4 comments:

Jody said...

Oh, mending! I don't mind the task, but I still have a huge pile in my room, too. I don't know when/if I'll get to it. I have the best intentions but not much time.

Joelle said...

just so you know - ruined clothing can go in those large tan bins you see around town. They shred most of those items to be used as filler in different things. They will take anything like that. I try to throw away as little as possible.

Ewe said...

Yes Joelle, I know that and that is what I meant by throw away. But I removed the buttons first just like my grandma would have! I considered removing the elastic to use for sewing but none was in good enough condition to make it worth it. But this makes one more pile to deliver to the bins. It is always a process for me to get everything I want to give away to the correct place or people. And this is why I dread my mending pile-each item needs to be evaluated how to fix and what to do with it if not and then actually doing it.

Jody said...

I remove buttons, too, in the hopes I'll use them sometime. Sometime is actually happening this week as I'm finishing curtains for the girls room and am using some buttons for decorations.

However, I keep SO MUCH I think I will use sometime. . . raggedy t-shirts to crochet into rugs, jeans to cut into quilt blocks, and the list goes on. The problem is I don't often (read: close to never) get around to having time to do those crafty things.

Mommy homeschooler first, crafts last!