Lately, inflation has increased our personal costs for everything from milk to pet food to socks. One way to battle this inflation and save money is to learn basic repairs for your clothes.
Many repairs can be made with basic, cheap tools: a little thread, a needle, and scissors.
Before you begin, do you have trouble threading a needle? A needle threader makes the process simple. Insert into the needle, put the thread through, and pull the threader out to leave a perfectly threaded needle.
Repair What You Wear, an educational website based in the UK, provides clear instructions on basic mending skills, such as sewing on a button, backstitching to fix a split, and fixing a hem. Sewguide.com also provides excellent instruction.
For help in Spanish, this handy guide by Ana Maria at Mi Maquina de Coser will help.
If you cannot reuse or mend an item, please consider donating it to a secondhand store such as Goodwill or St. Vinnie’s. Reuse is always the best first option. Also, textiles that cannot be mended are turned into rags for reuse at St. Vinnie’s.
Also, consider re-selling clothing through Poshmark and ThredUp or locally through the Clothes Horse and Buffalo Exchange in Eugene.
In my next article, I’ll discuss the environmental cost of clothing in landfills. Thanks for reading!
— Tamara Andreas, Lane County Waste Reduction Assistant
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