How We Lost Our Ability to Mend

dieworkwear ^ | recently; who knows? | dieworkwear [perhaps:Jesse Thorn]

[Daffynition]

Sad state of affairs we are in.

[TheZMan]

When I was a kid, my shirts lasted a decade.

When I was a teenager, my shirts lasted ~5 years.

When I was a young adult, my shirts lasted 2 years, at most.

In the last 20 years, I’ve had 1 shirt last an appreciable amount of time, and that company is no longer in business.

What the hell good is mending when the shirt is already 25% of the quality it was back when we actually mended stuff?

[Buttons12]

Spare the buttons!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I buy my clothing at the used store.

I can spend time mending a shirt or I can move it to the "muck out the stalls" category and buy another for 99 cents. 49 cents if I buy it on the last Tuesday of the month.

It is not sad, just being practical with my time.

[ronniesgal]

my 80 yr old sister darns her husbands socks, and i just buy new ones.

[Daffynition]

[Responsibility2nd]

Once in a great while a pair of pants will need mending. Maybe a belt loop has broken. Or maybe a button on a shirt has gone missing. I can have my dry cleaners fix and repair stuff like that. But the cost usually is close to what I paid for the shirt or the pair of pants in the first place. Might as well throw them away.

[SamAdams76]

It's a little deeper than that. Most "modern" women do not want anything to do with sewing or mending because it reinforces stereotypes that this is a domestic chore, in other words a "women's job" and that women that do so for their husbands or even children are just being submissive "doormat" housewives. For the opposite reason, most men would never submit to such a task either lest they be thought of as unmanly, sissy or a henpecked husband. By the way, the military teaches men to sew as part of basic training - they are even issued a sewing kit as part of their boot camp gear - but they will never admit this to their wives.

So we are at an impasse. A battle of the sexes. And perfectly good clothing gets thrown away as a result. Or taken to the dry cleaners or tailor for repair.

[SamAdams76]

When I was a kid, my shirts lasted a decade.

You went an entire decade as a kid without growing out of them?

[Windflier]

Clothes became cheaper and more disposable, that’s all.

In the 50s and 60s when my mom was feeding seven kids on a soldier’s pay, we fixed everything we possibly could, before spending good money on a new replacement.

We kids learned to darn socks, sew buttons, hem, patch, stitch, you name it. Our house had a huge sewing box that was in constant use.

My wife has kept a sewing box over the quarter century I’ve known her, but it’s rarely been in service. Our daughter can sew a bit, but that’s because she loves making crafts. My boys wouldn’t know how to thread a needle if their lives depended on it.

[stylin19a]

I was taught how to sew & darn...and then I was introduced to duct tape...life changed

[Windflier]

...most men would never submit to such a task either lest they be thought of as unmanly, sissy or a henpecked husband.

A real man who is comfortable in his masculinity doesn't let such petty considerations stop him from fixing his own clothes.

Now, if said 'real man' is married, he'll more than likely get his wife to do that for him, but he also takes chores off her plate that he's better suited to.

[SamAdams76]

I agree. I actually consider a man "unmanly" who can't take care of himself and requires a woman (usually a wife or mother) to take care of him.

Nothing more pathetic than a man sitting on the couch in his underwear eating a bowl of cereal because he can't fix a decent meal for himself or work the laundry to wash his clothes.

[IronJack]

The new ones are made by machines. The old ones are repaired by hand.

Do the math.

[fidelis]

I found this to be a very interesting article. I don't remember being taught to sew or mend when I was a kid, but I remember at least sewing on my own buttons or mending an embarrassing crotch-rip in my pants. My mom would, of course, hem my pants if they needed them and sew on my Boy Scout patches. When I was in the Air Force, they gave us a small sewing kit and we were expected to know how to do basic uniform mending.

I always like it when I go into the schools on inspections and see home economics classes with a bunch of sewing machines set up (though I've yet to see any kids actually working on them. Maybe they don't use them, like the empty wood shop classrooms I find). I also recently saw some state of the art sewing machines at our public library where they offer free tutorials and machine use.

[Covenantor]

The 6'-5" defensive tackle Rosie Grier had no problem with needle and thread work...

[Persevero]

Mending is great. I love altering my clothes, too. Customized! An inexoensive hobby...once you get the sewing machine. I used to do it without the machine but not as well.

[erkelly]

May I suggest youtube? Along with a lot of confusion and stupidity, there is a wealth of information. Not only have I learned such things as how to fix my washer, how to “deep clean” my dishwasher, how to change my dining room light switch to a dimmer switch, and how to determine why my car’s air conditioning didn’t work (I did have to take it in but I knew what was wrong and what it should cost to fix) but I have also learned how to darn socks, how to alter clothes, and how to mend sweaters, among many other useful things including some wonderful recipes and step-by-step directions. By the way, I am a senior citizen. Youtube for all its idiocy and idiotic censorship, and know-nothing know-it-alls whose reading aloud skills are on a 3rd grade level, is still an incredibly useful source of information. Anything you are likely to want to know how to fix can be found on Youtube.

[Lurker51]

“You went an entire decade as a kid without growing out of them?”

The were probably passed down to younger siblings... at least that’s how it worked in my family.

[erkelly]

Hand me downs maybe? Interestingly, I recently saw a woolen jumper handed down to me by an aunt when I was a teenager, that I handed down to a younger sister when I went off to college, now being worn by her college-age daughter, and I expect someday, if I live that long, her college-age daughter will wear it. The style is classic and the fabric is beautiful and very sturdy. I am so glad I did cut the hem off that garment in those days of short-short skirts, but for some reason I just could not. I did shorten it a lot, however. Of course, the hem has been let down to its original length now.