Mending socks

 In our house we have some boys that wear through socks very fast. At least it seems that way to me. Well one of my life motto's is: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without" and this year especially I am working to put that into practice. So a couple of weeks ago (after some complaints that they had "no nice socks to wear" ) I decided to see if I could do something about "making it do" with our socks.


Now I really don't think this project is for everyone. Some people I know would just get a little bit stressed over the idea of mending socks and so any financial or environmental savings that they incur just wouldn't be worth it to them. For me however, the whole idea and challenge of making something last longer before it is thrown out (which then saves me money) is very fun and I love it. I also found the activity of mending the socks fun. I did it on a Saturday that I wasn't feeling to great so I just sat around for part of the day and mended socks while reading a book. That is my idea of a fun Saturday when I am ill.

  Here is what I used to mend socks:

• Old socks (in this case they were all black - a great color for boys in my opinion as you can't see stains) that all had holes in the heel and some in the toe too.
• Fleece fabric scraps
• Needle and Thread
• A pair of scissors and a baseball

 I stuck the baseball inside the sock to kind of stretch it to the right shape and create a nice surface for sewing on. Then I cut a patch larger than the hole (I tried to make it so it would be even under their heel or toe too, for comfort) and whip stitched it in place.

This is a pair that is finished and ready to go. The boys love the fleece patches - they say they are more comfortable that they were originally (that was a concern of mine). I think they look just fine. Now we will see how long they last. They have only been wearing them a couple of weeks so far.

A while before one of Mara's favorite pairs of socks (she loves really long and patterned ones) developed holes in the heels so she patched them using portions cut from another old pair of socks. That doesn't look quite as nice but it has worked and extended the wear on her socks.

  Do you ever mend socks? Is it something you would consider or do think it would be a waste of time? Have you ever done something to "Make it do" that others might consider extreme?

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