My favorite silk top and socks!
Little garden on my sock!
I've been trying little stitches from inspiration from things I see online. I wish I kept track of the inspirations. I think this one came from someone's doodling I saw in a notebook.
Mindless meditative free style mending on my sock.
Sometimes the the worn out spaces and holes have their own spirit and just take me somewhere timeless, mindless and unlikely!
I think, after this practice stitching, I'll be using it for kantha stitching!
This geometric type kantha of triangles is easy, fun and so simple, yet I love the way it turned out!
Last kantha stitch practice on my socks!
Here are the socks with mending done!
Mindless fun!
Saying Goodbye: I won't be letting these go anytime soon and I don't think anyone would even bother wanting them! But you might see some of these designs on some of my textile art coming soon!
I do need new socks, but the last ones I bought smelled so much, that just opening them made me sick with an allergy reaction. Then I had to wash them over and over for days in different kinds of solutions and guess which one worked the best?
How do you get musty or weird and strong perfumed smells out of your clothes?
I mended my favorite silk shirt too. As you can see from the light behind it, it's almost thread bear and the mends are difficult to see, but I added some binding on the right hand sleeve that I made from Japanese silk classic shibori. It's like wearing a bracelet.
What I Learned:
1. With all my allergies, finding replacements for my clothes as they wear out is becoming more and more difficult because finding 100% cotton clothes isn't as easy as it used to be, nor is finding clothes that don't smell! So I've started to mend the ones I still have.
2. I bought a 6 pairs of socks for the winter to replace my thread bear ones and I spent days washing them! Here are the solutions I tried:
I washed them over and over, until they look don't look brand new anymore. Didn't work.
Left them out for days in the rain. This didn't work for my socks, but it worked for some of the really old boro I bought from Japan.
I left them enclosed in a bag of charcoal over night and then washed them with a sock filled with charcoal. This has worked for some of my clothes that arrive smelling like machinery oil or have a strange strong flowery fragrance that stirs up my allergies. It worked enough for a cashmere scarf I bought, so I could take it to the eco friendly dry cleaners and they got the rest of the smell out of it.
Here is a photo of the back of the shirt with a tiny patch at the top by the neckline and a better photo of the seam binding bracelet like edge to the wearing wrist area of the sleeve.
I even tried spraying Dr. Schultz's Air Detox on them and adding some of the oil spray with the laundry detergent, but only lightly because it says it might stain clothing.
Lastly, an Etsy buyer who has become a friend, said that she uses vanilla vodka to spray on her clothes that smell musty or have a strong perfumed smell. Luckily, someone gave us some organic vodka over the holidays and it worked! In an empty Dr. Schultz's Air Detox bottle I added half organic vodka and half water.
However, next time I think I'll buy some cheap vodka and add vanilla to it and might even try adding it to the laundry detergent.
3. My mending pile is huge now and it would be so much easier and faster to just buy more clothes, but after all that washing and allergy reactions, I think I'll keep mending what I have.
4. I usually embroider the dates on my mends too, so when they come undone I can see how long the stitching lasted, but I forgot on these two pieces.
The opposite sleeve from the seam binding one ended up with a pocket type mend. When I get healthier and stronger, I imagine myslef safety pinning my house key inside the pocket while I go for a run! Until then, it's a gentle reminder to continue with my yoga and walking with baby steps and I will eventually find myself running again!
It took many months and I'm thankful to say my health is on the mend, especially my lower back pain and sciatica, as long as I keep up with doing yoga daily and an hour of meditation. I can sit down in most conventional chairs now! which means I'm back in a car!
I have faith that meditation will eventually help my allergies too by helping me to balance my body, mind and spirit.
Click on the shop names to visit new hoard listed daily and/or weekly: HoarderRehab with 175 items, The Destiny of Things- 181 items, VintageToGoEasy - 186 items and JunkDrawerAndMore - 179 items
Maybe you'll find something to adopt and share your story too! Thanks for looking!
I needed some new shoes too! So I ordered these for the Lunar New Year and to wear for Valentine's day, but they are one size too big for me. It wasn't cost effective to return them, so I upcycled them and listed them here
photo via JunkDrawerAndMore
Related Stories:
Thank you readers from all over the world who continue to support my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things by taking part with your visits!
"A stitch a day keeps the hoard away!" Happy Friday!
No comments:
Post a Comment