How We Lost Our Ability to Mend

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

[Daffynition]

I was folding away some laundry the other day when I noticed a hole in my J. Crew sweatshirt. It’s about the size of my pinky nail, but threatens to get bigger, and it’s located in the very inconvenient place of my sweatshirt’s collar band. “I should mend that,” I thought, until I realized I don’t know how to mend anything at all.

The idea of mending today feels more like a promise than a reality. Alden Wicker touched on this last month in her Vox article about how the spare button represents all the ways we fail to be good consumers. Everyone has a stash of spare buttons rattling around in some drawer, with each button still neatly tucked inside its original packaging until we gather the will to throw it away. We buy things because they’re supposedly “investment pieces” and “classics,” but when it comes time to actually take care of our clothes, we don’t actually know how – or, more often, can’t be bothered.

[Windflier]

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

I remember that!

[Windflier]

...the only thing in his refrigerator was bread he bought in bulk and kept frozen in the freezer. He was looking for somebody to be his cook and housekeeper. The man was over 40 years old, had never been married, and had never learned to do these things for himself.

Now that's a scary picture. Thank God that was never me.

[Responsibility2nd]

But, but... those are high fashion expensive jeans. Available at high-end retail stores. Worth $300 a pair or more. Must have. All the chic millennials wear them.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

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.

I just had a flashback to an exercise conducted by the US Navy which I saw. The objective was to familiarize a group of sailors with a new inventory item. One sailor read the instructions, and two sailors executed the procedure in question while the rest of the group observed.

All manufacturers should make a youTube video of their instruction manuals in such a manner. The participants in the video should be a “focus group” of people from the target demographic of the product. And if the first try doesn’t produce a satisfactory result - as judged by other members of the target demographic - rewrite the manual and retry as necessary.

[right way right]

Some of us are completely dependent on others while many of us know just enough about everything...to be dangerous.

I will humbly claim the latter.

People will say to me, “Wow, your so smart”.

I tell them, “yeah, I’m an expert...beware”.

The wise man never stops learning.

[polymuser]

I dunno...many folks still do minor clothing repairs. I do (though I must admit, if I can get away with an inside iron-on patch, I will).

Our Millenials, not so much I’d guess. Do they even have home ec class I n schools anymore?

As for cooking, there are a good many men that are great cooks. I sometimes suspect moreso than women.

[Windflier]

People will say to me, “Wow, your so smart”.

Those people can't spell. It's, you're.

The wise man never stops learning.

Too true. Conversely, you can't teach a know-it-all a bloody thing.

[right way right]

No, the speeling is mine.
Lol,slaps own face.

[trebb]

Maybe you just got rougher on shirts over the years.....
Except for the fact that when I was a kid, I outgrew my shirts before they got to be much over a year old, I can relate as to how they have made things a lot more cheaply than at one time....I make clothes last a long time...I have a down filled jacket I bought at Myrtle Beach in ‘75 that’s still in good shape...of course I haven’t been stationed or lived in any places with long hard Winters over the years....almost time to buy some more T-Shirts as the ones I have are showing their age.
Learned to do some minor sewing as a 12 year old and find myself breaking out thread an needle a few times a year...amazing it’s too complicated for so many these days.

[Daffynition]

Well, I raised 3 boys....and hand-me-downs were de rigueur; except for those pesky jeans....the knees wore out long before the rest of the pants did. Heh. I remember those iron on patches...reinforced with some straight stitching. A God-send.

I think home ec and shop have gone by the wayside n most places.

Only now, do you hear about their *value*. Let’s face it, the at home mother is long gone, so the mom is no longer ls around to teach the skills [which she never got anyway]. Also, long gone are those who lived through the Depression and had to learn how to make do with what little they had.

All this, is a sign of our affluence.

[Daffynition]

Our standards for looking well-dressed has vanished.

Have you been to a wedding or funeral lately? People dress like slobs. Yet you go to a store that sells clothing....and you stand in the lines that are a mile long, people buying nice things, I suppose.....and where do they wear these clothes....not to church, or a wedding or funeral, that’s for sure.

Good bye to the fedora...the hippies of the 60s took that from us....or speeded up the demise.

https://secure.static.tumblr.com/ad2ee2497d3558b15c199d8e5cfa62cb/9wqq962/3ofn6gs3g/tumblr_static_peoples.jpg

[RandallFlagg]

Duluth Trading Co. makes some really tough clothing.

[TheZMan]

Thanks for the heads up.

[RandallFlagg]

Buttons are expensive. Just went to get some a couple days ago.
I should get a 3D printer and make my own.

[Carriage Hill]

Too much “mending”, methinks.
LOL.