There are many times where green living and frugal living go hand in hand and this is one of them. Have you ever opened your closet and found clothes you never wear? Sometimes I do that and ask myself “Why?” Why have all this clutter when I don’t use or need it?
One way to keep from cluttering up your closet with clothes is to be able to repair the ones you have and actually use. Sometimes something small happens and rather than fix it, we toss the item or worse yet, leave it in the closet and never use it again because it is “broken.”
Knowing how to mend clothes is especially essential if you have kids. Do they even teach Home Economics in schools anymore? I know how important all the other subjects are, but I think maybe Home Ec is highly underestimated in this day and age.
The first thing you should know how to do is sew a button. All you need is thread, a needle, and a button. Make sure you have extra buttons on hand, including keeping those that come with outfits.
Hemming pants is another good technique to know, especially if you have kids. They may have pants that are too long or pull a string that makes the hem come loose. You can hem pants with or without a sewing machine.
Patching jeans…oh my, with a six-year-old boy, do I have experience with this! Patching jeans is easy – you can use iron-on patches. It takes seconds to repair the jeans and at the very least, your little one has a great pair of play jeans that you don’t mind them messing up.
Fixing a ripped seam is a bit like hemming pants, although usually much simpler. Just a few stitches can repair that seam and save your favorite blouse from the garbage can.
If you need some good tutorials for making repairs, check out the Sew4Home page.