Mrs. Mender

TBG is hard on his clothes.  When one of his favorite work sweatshirts was torn, he asked me to sew it back together for him.  As Haus Frau, this is one of my jobs.  Since he's a lefty, anything involving scissors is out.  He also has huge arthritic hands that couldn't manage the job.  

It was amazing to me that he only asked me to fix one spot, as I found quite a few others in need of help.  The surgical procedure actually took about an hour and a half.   This was a two-ply piece so it was stitched on the outside and the inside.  Aside from the two big spots on the arms, there were tons of other little holes starting to form.

These shirts are free -- vendors or his company provides them.  That doesn't mean we don't try to care for them and get as much use as possible.  Having a dirty job means his clothes are going to get beat up, which means they're going to need to be taken care of.  While I do well buying him stuff second hand, the work-horse pieces like this are worth maintaining -- and I'm happy to do so.

Lucky for me, he's not fashion-vain. Paisley patches don't bother him.  I've been setting aside remnants for specific pieces.  One donor piece will be used on any holes this pair of pants gets.  I've found that even if he has two pair of the same jeans, he'll wear one of them more. I think it's because I keep the more used pieces on top so that they can wear out first... I do the laundry and put it all away, which makes it easier for me to manipulate the frequency in which they are worn.  Also, I love upholstery fabric for mending his work jeans -- its more durable and wears a lot better than fashion cloth.

There was a huge tear out of the rise on the back side.  He hadn't even noticed it!  Every couple of washes, I check this particular pair and if I see something starting, I stitch it right away.  Then there are true clothing injuries -- I'm assuming he caught the cloth on something and tore it.  Since it was on his back side, he probably never noticed it.  Well, that's what I'm here for!