Mending

 I have had a pile of mending on my sewing machine for a while, four tops with those annoying holes that are caused by rubbing against jeans hardware - studs and zip. Although I like jeans, I have moved to wearing bamboo pull-on trousers in summer and merino ones in Winter, for reasons of both comfort and avoidance of those holes.  

This week I tackled the pile of damaged tops - and a couple of merino trousers which had developed ladders in the interlock fabric.

One of the tops was a fairly damaged cheap t-shirt, machine-embroidered around the neckline. I decided to use the embroidery for patching and the rest of it as rags. A piece of the t-shirt embroidery worked quite well on the blue wool top.               

I had two commercial patches I had bought from Jumbly-Oomph, Deeds not words and I Dissent. They are designed as iron-ons for sturdier cloth than these tops, but I thought it worth trying, stitching them on by machine rather than ironing. 

I used cotton tape to stitch over the small runs in the merino trousers, both on the inside and the outside. Hopefully it will hold. 

It remains to be seen how long these last and whether it was worth the effort. For now, it keeps a few garments out of landfill - and off my sewing machine!