It's probably oxymoronic or a crazy wisdom paradox to be mending with rag patches!
Boro rag patch experiment
More of my textile art at Hoarder Rehab
Available in the handmade by me for you, here
It might be silly and odd, but it's better than hoarding! And it's an alternative start to helping me find a more positive constructive productive path on my Hoarder Rehab journey. So be it!
I love the mindless free style of act of seeing where the next piece of black thread is going to take me! It's very calming and sends me to a timeless place. It's like a Rip Van Winkle effect where I wake up and hours have gone by, dinner is still in the frig, laundry still in the washer and nothing but patching has been done!
Now that is better than hoarding!
More Rag Patches
More of my textile art at The Destiny of Things
Available in the handmade by me for you, here
Personally myself, I've been watching my mending decay over time and love to see it disintegrate into another form with each wash. I've been mending my favorite white guaze shirt for two summers now and it has mends over mends! It's hard to see, but here is the collar:
I upcycled pieces from a stained linen doily and made circle patch mends with random designs
For me, it's so relaxing and fun.
The best part is there is no planning or thinking involved either!
I wear this all the time in the summer and since it's white patch mending on white and my hair covers the collar, no one notices. Which brings to mind these stories:
In eighth grade on a field trip, part of the assignment was to break social norms in public and document what happens. My partner and I broke around 10 norms together. I wore my tee shirt inside out, faced people with my back to the door on elevators, pushed an empty wheelchair and other stuff I can't remember, but what I do remember is the whole time, NOT one person reacted! No one said or did anything out of the ordinary, not even look at us side ways or smile.
No one said anything to us! Which is how I met one of my best friends from college! He was breaking a norm everyday in class and either no one noticed or said anything.
He used to wear his tee shirt inside out to class at every meeting. I used to come late to that class because I had a waitressing job at a Rock and Roll sushi bar that didn't close until midnight and had to have coffee or I'd fall asleep.
So I'd sneak in quietly and sit in the back and I noticed he'd always have his shirt inside out with the tag sticking up. I'd sometimes wonder why... was he a starving student without laundry quarters, did he have to wait til the weekend to take his laundry home....So one day I asked him about it and he said, "You've won a free beer! I've been wearing my tee shirts inside out for months now and you are first to say anything!" And a friendship began. Some might say that was a Godwink!
So I don't think anyone even notices my mends, which is the way I like it! I've become more brave and added some pastel color threads and have been mending with quotes. There is a quote in yellow and one in pink. Maybe you can see it a little better in this close up:
Circle rag patches from an old stained table linen
More of my textile art at The Destiny of Things
Available in the handmade by me for you, here
Back to rag patching, I've been making these patches to mend either the inside or outside of clothing and leaving them unfinished, so more can be added when used to patch mend a holey garment.
FRONT
More of my textile art at Hoarder Rehab
Available in the handmade by me for you, here
Yes, I've been mending with the design patches on the inside because I do love the way the reverse side looks too! Many times I think the messy reverse side looks better! More pix of those mended clothes next Friday, until then here are the back sides:
BACK
More of my textile art at The Destiny of Things
Available in the handmade by me for you, here
What I Learned:
1. I've been trying a lot of different creative outlets as alternatives to hoarding, but not much keeps my interest very long. I've tried making cards, washi tape art, mixed media art collage, jewelry assemblage, textile fiber art and mending is what I always go back to doing.
And of course, I've fallen into the hoarding trap of collecting, looking, planning and buying ALL the supplies needed to try all the different creative outlets I find appealing and there are so many! Ha!
And what do I end up using the most? Thread and rags!
2. I've been procrastinating about writing about my many Hoarder Rehab tips that have helped me through this journey. I don't know where to start! Plus I'd rather patch and mend!
The clover and the shamrock are salvaged from the stained linen doily
I use to mend with circle patches on my favorite shirt.
or just view them to see how the backs turned out!
While I'm rag patch mending and trying other alternative creative outlets as part of my Hoarder Rehab I am still dehoarding daily on all four Etsy shops!
My new dehoarding goal is to list something new weekly at each shop until I reach 200 at least three shops!
Click on the shop names to visit new hoard listed daily or weekly: HoarderRehab with 195 items, The Destiny of Things- 190 items , VintageToGoEasy - 199 items and now JunkDrawerAndMore - 160 items! Maybe you'll find something to take home and share your story too! Thanks for looking!
My favorite piece of kantha boro rag wearable textile art
photo via Hoarder Rehab
available here or see the back!
Related Stories:
2. Not a huge rip in my favorite jeans! Before pix Mending as a Creative Outlet, Story 1
3. Other Creative Outlet Stories on this blog, here
"A stitch a day keeps the hoard away."---Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things
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