Making do and mending...

Otherwise known as, "My children are growing and a pandemic is keeping me from the usual shopping haunts so I have to somehow magic them new things out of old things!"

My 8 year old has suddenly shot up by about 4 inches and after a week or so of him appearing sporting short trousers and unintentional three-quarter sleeves we had a sort through his clothes. Basically all of his summer/autumn stuff is kaput. Usually, this would mean a trip to Asda/Primark/Matalan and stock up on basics but I have been having a think around the clothes industry and how much I want to support it.  

In my own wardrobe I have always tried to be as mindful about the contents of my wardrobe. I am not comfortable with the amount of environmental damage or exploitation involved in the fashion industry so I have always (where practical) tried to just not buy that sort of stuff. With all the slowing down of life stuff that has happened over the last few months I have had time to consider why I don't really apply that attitude to my children's clothes. 

The obvious answer is that kids grow. Like, all the time. Fabric is generally not cheap and though I like to make them bits to wear I have always stopped short of attempting *everything* because who wants to lovingly make something that will only be worn a few times before its too small?

However, I have recently been listening to some of the historical costumers on youtube speaking about how people approached clothing in the past and it's given me a lot of food for thought. Obviously, they didn't have the err... luxury(?) of fast fashion so couldn't just pop out and buy stuff for their kids. Cloth was really expensive so they used every bit of it that they could. Adult clothing was often converted for children, which was then often pieced together in odd ways because they had to use the cloth in the most efficient way. I admit I can be a bit wasteful of fabric. I don't keep scraps from projects and I don't lay my pattern particularly efficiently so end up with weird rectangles of fabric with a big sleeve-shaped hole in the the middle.

What really stuck with me though from listening to the historians was that clothes were expensive, and expensive for a reason. The cloth was expensive and then it took time to make a garment. Clothes are supposed to be expensive people! Not because they are 'designer', but because it was made properly. So even though fabric is still not cheap. it's not really wasteful to make a childs garment from it when it could be remade/reworked/mended to either fit a smaller child or improved to fit the growing child later on. Don't be concerned I have no intention of suddenly dressing my kids like street urchins but there has to be a way to make the constant cycle of clothes too small -> buy/make clothes a little easier to bear. I think the answers are in the way our ancestors coped with the same problem.

The other thing that stuck with me is that sewing in the past wasn't a 'hobby', the maintenance of clothes (darning, mending) was a practical, everyday life skill. Clothing was looked after because it had to last as long as possible, and then it was made up into something else!  Honestly, when you think about it, it's amazing that there is anything left over to display in today's museums. I need to mend more.

the pile of old things.

So, behold - the pile of things that no longer fit my 8 year old. Yes, the awesome minecraft trousers I made for him are there /cry

I have a tiny bit of jersey that I'm hoping to squeeze one long sleeved t-shirt out of and actually after a bit of a sort through the original pile. There were a few things that straight out fit my soon to be 4 year old. So they will be winging that way instead of to the cutting board. 

To save his very favourite top that I had to wrestle off his body I have cut out the slogan on the front, basted it down and started to blanket stitch it to a newly cut grey jersey front. The jersey in the back of the old top became the new neckband.

I hadn't planned to buy new fabric for his stuff but after pondering and taking on the points I was talking about above, I've decided that it's not necessarily a sunk cost as long as it begins a long life of use in whatever format. So.. I'm probably going to 'invest' in some new fabric for the kids stuff. I'll update when a few things are done.