wear it out | organised castle

I discovered recently that some clothes can be salvaged and others can really only be destined as waste or recycling if you have access to textile recycling facilities.

First, a pair of GMan’s shorts which he managed to splash with a substance containing bleach and you can see the results near both side seams below the pockets.

The fabric is sound and they in otherwise fairly reasonable condition so I decided I had nothing to lose and coloured in the affected spots with a black permanent marker. The result is far from perfect, however, the marks are considerably less noticeable than before.

GMan will continue to wear them for everyday wear.

A top of mine had a different fate. I bought a very fine knitted top for $5 secondhand almost exactly 2 years ago. According to the label it was linen. Anyway, it had been gradually getting thinner in the underarm area and I suspect that was was why it had been donated in the first place. It has finally become unwearable so I have added it to the pile for textile recycling. The photo shows a close-up of the multiple small holes under one arm and the other side was in a similar state.

This is my last post here for about a month as we are now on holidays and I will be posting here.

Some would say that these shorts are not worth mending. They are at least 25 years old and once upon a time they were 3/4 length travel pants. After much wearing the knees finally gave way and I cut them off into a fairly unflattering pair of shorts. They were only ever destined to be worn around the yard but they get a good workout fulfilling that role. An incredibly comfortable pair of shorts that are lightweight and perfect for our hot summers.

They have been patched several times but the most recent rips almost saw the end of them.

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I decided to make an attempt on one more patch.

I selected a piece of strong cotton fabric which would generously cover the two large rips. I then cut a matching piece of double-sided iron-on interfacing and ironed it to the wrong side of the patch.

Remove the paper backing and place on the wrong side of the area to be patched. Make sure that the rips are closely aligned then press again to fuse the patch to the garment.

Use a wide zigzag stitch to stitch over the rip. You may need to do several runs to cover it. Finally, use a narrower zigzag stitch to finish the edges of the patch.

The outside and inside views when completed.

This is not invisible or even particularly neat so is really only suitable for clothes where looks are not important.

We spend a significant amount of time in the garden or painting and renovating so functional ‘old’ clothes are a must. It makes sense to extend the life of them as much as possible.

My shorts with multiple patches have survived to see another summer but that is a few months away yet. It is good to be prepared, though.

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