A day for Frankenclothing?

[lauradi7dw]

Supposedly, many people have been wearing pajamas for much of this time period. We have been wearing clean daytime clothes every day, but I have been doing some thinking about indoor-only clothing. I wore a skirt the other day that has a broken zipper (broken at the bottom, so not closeable at all). My sister noticed the gap from across the continent and across the room (I briefly had my back to the screen). I have a lightweight short linen dress that is very comfortable on hot days, but has three holes, one of them fairly large, in a back panel. I have a pair of old soft leggings with POCKETS, but the waistband elastic has decomposed. The leggings I am wearing today have gaping holes in the thigh that have been mended and re-torn a number of times over the years.
In the attic of everything, there is not just storage, but my sewing machine. It is a treadle machine, very old, and definitely not moveable. It occurred to me that today will be the last practical machine sewing day for a while, because after today, it will be all 90s every day, hence quite unpleasant in the attic. If I declare all of these garments to be for at-home use only, can I give myself leave to mend them without worrying how they look? I'm thinking of replacing the maroon linen panel with bright orange cotton aloha fabric. Nobody will think I'm a boogaloo boy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo_movement
I haven't tried to replace a waistband in years, but what the heck? If it looks bunchy, nobody will see it.
Use it up! Wear it out! Make it do or do without! (says someone who has scads of other garments, so doing without isn't really the issue here. I do tend to love some items to death, though, so there are other frayed clothes in regular rotation).

Comments

[nosrednayduj]

If it were me, I'd find the nearest textile recycling box. Google for Bay State Textiles to see if they have boxes in your town. We have them here in Sharon. But if you enjoy sewing, by all means sew away.

[lauradi7dw]

There are fabric recycling boxes in front of every elementary school in Lexington. I don't know if they're being emptied currently. Also, I like those garments, and want to keep using them. I am worried about the corduroy jumper I wear almost weekly every winter (for at least sixteen years), because it has incipient problems I don't think I can fix. I haven't been able to find a replacement that is as good.
Enjoy is the wrong word about sewing. I started sewing in about fifth grade, when the girl scout troop took professional lessons (in a room up above the Singer store) to get the sewing badge. Three years later, when we were required to take home ec, I made many mistakes. Fifty+ years later, I still make lots of mistakes. There are things I want that don't seem to be commercially available, so I keep trying, with some successes over time, and a lot of mess-ups. My mask production has had mixed results. Park of that I am blaming on Arthur's face, which seems to be shaped unlike what people expect. Even Emily Lakdawalla's XL isn't long enough to be comfortable for him, for some reason. The very simple generic one on the CDC page seems to fit me OK.
I am planning to attend part of the NZcon soon, but am not making a costume. The non-elaborate costumes I have made for Arisia got ignored, and it would only be for my amusement anyway - I don't use the video function on Discord.

[nosrednayduj]

I hear you on "can't get anything like that anymore". I've got some kitchen gear from the 50's and 60's and whenever it breaks I scour thrift stores for replacements...

[sorcyress]

I haven't been doing full-time pyjamas, but it turns out that I don't actually like wearing bras, and so unless I have a work meeting (teenagers cannot possibly know that nipples exist or the world will end, ditto my boss) or am actually doing Serious Exercise (haaaa), nnope. So no bra for just ages now, and I've been quite pleased about it. Unfortunately it's not comfortable on bikes or (Scottish) dance floors, so this is probably just a pandemic experiment.

[lauradi7dw]

I stopped wearing a bra almost as soon as I moved into a dorm in 1973. I think that was before sports bras, which are both helpful and torturous. I wear one when jogging, sometimes when tap dancing. I occasionally have had to wear as bra to look "professional" or formal. As was pointed out in this book (don't buy it from Amazon - I could loan you my copy), if you don't wear a bra, clothes with darts don't fit right.
https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Hassle-Free-Make-Clothes-Books/dp/B000MIAA3M/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/144-6233649-6388118?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B000MIAA3M&pd_rd_r=2d44630e-e025-4b9d-ba3a-a596f3dc2a41&pd_rd_w=AtcPS&pd_rd_wg=kcifB&pf_rd_p=bdc67ba8-ab69-42ee-b8d8-8f5336b36a83&pf_rd_r=8YFKYVDN8YB61WAQ5C4E&psc=1&refRID=8YFKYVDN8YB61WAQ5C4E

My mother has stopped wearing a bra within the past couple of years, for comfort and convenience reasons.

There are theories about the right sort of bra for ringing, which of course varies from person to person. I believe the only right sort is none, because I've never had a bra that didn't restrict my shoulders in some way. Maybe I should get a custom-fitted one at some point, although by the time I am willing to go into a fitting room at any sort of store, the old lady custom fitters will have gone extinct.