The joy of socks: To darn or not to darn....

[Ming the Merciless]

My Y fronts never wear out. As a hole develops in the fabric there remains a solid skin, a crust of filth covering up the hole. I've been wearing the same pair since 1972 and there's very little actual fabric left.

Being pre EU Y fronts, they will soon be back in fashion.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Darned a merino base layer last weekend. Fixing holes in the elbow from an off in 2018. Nothing like fixing holes promptly.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Oh, I thought it was just tatty knees and thighs!

Even without jeans having holes in, everybody under 25 seems to have underwear permanently on display courtesy of buttock-bisection or below-buttock positioning...

It’s because the buttock muscles of youngsters are so small , due to lack of proper exercise.

 

[sleuthey]

Oh, Am I the only one that uses them for this then?

 

[oldwheels]

I have one of these old fashioned darning mushrooms which is very handy for darning. Being in the trade I had the opportunity of getting really good wool socks and wool jerseys at trade prices. They were expensive even at trade but worth every penny and well worth darning when they got holes a few years later. The socks have now gone but the guernseys are still going.

 

[annedonnelly]

I will darn socks up to a point. Mine always seem to wear on the right heel for some odd reason. But when they're past their best, they either end up as fruit protectors on my fig tree (my fig tree is currently covered in a raft of bright pink fluffy socks with no heels), or as sucky sock catnip toys for the girls.

Do people do a double-take when they walk past your tree?

 

[Reynard]

Do people do a double-take when they walk past your tree?

Alas not - the downside of living in the boonies... But imagine the fun I might have if I lived in town, I could tell the kids I have a sock tree...

 

[tyred]

I have never darned socks. I possibly might do if I knew how! In reality socks are cheap and seem to last for years anyway plus when you do get new socks they're always nice and cosy and comfortable.

I've always tried to repair things rather than bin them. I often repair clothes if necessary.

The old Skoda I coaxed back to life had a big rip on the side bolster of the driver's seat so I used a patch cut from a knackered pair of jeans to patch it!

 

[ColinJ]

I repair my electrical goods though. I had an electrical shop owner look at me as if I were mad for spending £10 on a replacement element for a £13 toaster.

I repaired the backlight on my old laptop...

I recently replaced a burned out connector on my convector heater rather than spending £15 on a new heater...

 

[Drago]

I repair my electrical goods though. I had an electrical shop owner look at me as if I were mad for spending £10 on a replacement element for a £13 toaster.

I repaired the backlight on my old laptop...

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I recently replaced a burned out connector on my convector heater rather than spending £15 on a new heater...

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And on a completely unrelated note, only 3 or Colin's houses have ever burned down in mysterious circumstances.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Throwing away perfectly usable clothes is so wasteful. Don't they know there's a war on?

Being wasteful such as binning still useable clothing is why some people supposedly can't afford to feed their kids - see the UNICEF thread....

That's not very fashionable, is it...?
Most people these days seem willing to pay extra for pre-knackered jeans!

Only the ones who also have their brain surgically removed at the checkout! Normal people don't pay extra for denims pre-slashed across the knees with a razor blade.....

Being pre EU Y fronts, they will soon be back in fashion.

They never went out of fashion, the EU era was just an interlude.

In reality socks are cheap and seem to last for years anyway plus when you do get new socks they're always nice and cosy and comfortable.

I've always tried to repair things rather than bin them. I often repair clothes if necessary.

The old Skoda I coaxed back to life had a big rip on the side bolster of the driver's seat so I used a patch cut from a knackered pair of jeans to patch it!

In real terms, mass-produced clothing is quite a bit cheaper than it was 30 or 40 years ago. As a result, a lot of muppets just wear stuff a few times then chuck it. Personally, no matter how cheap something was, I will still use it until it falls apart.
A denim car seat patch is a quality repair. I've used a fertiliser sack before now to keep the stuffing in a knackered vehicle seat!

 

[ColinJ]

And on a completely unrelated note, only 3 or Colin's houses have ever burned down in mysterious circumstances.

I was a bit embarrassed by that convector heater fault... I had noticed that there was a blue flash from inside every now and then which usually seemed to coincide with the thermostat cutting the power so I assumed that was where it was coming from, and just ignored it. Eventually the heater packed up altogether though and then I decided to take the problem more seriously... Looking at the damaged connector, I reckon that it had just been resting against the terminal that it should have been firmly pushed onto!

The laptop fault was caused by the connection failing to one end of its backlight. You can see where it had been arcing, marked by the red outline in the second picture. I managed to solder a small length of cable in to reconnect it. I used it for another few years after that. (The machine still works, but I have a new laptop now. I'll have to think of something to use the old machine for because it isn't worth selling and I am not throwing away working kit.)

 

[Reynard]

And if all else fails, there's always duck tape

I make my own soft furnishings and cat show drapes with re-claimed fabrics. I'm not above unpicking seams and then turning curtains into cushions etc. Although when it comes to clothes, I'm not a big fan of fast fashion. I prefer fewer better quality items and then get good mileage out of them. And you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to do that - sales rails are good, M&S jeans are very hard wearing and Decathlon stuff is very well made at prices that are kind on the wallet.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

@Reynard My mum used to make cushion casings from any suitable material, and would cut a worn bedsheet down the middle, and sew it back together with the outer edges swapped to the centre, to get some more wear out of it. She also would pick up stuff from the jumble sale for pennies, to pick apart and keep the material for repair patches. As a kid, every time I put a hole in the knee of my trousers, they received a repair patch and I received a bollocking.
TBH, I've not noticed much difference in durability of denims related to cost. I've got multiple pairs of Tesco's "value" straight leg jeans that cost me £3 a pop in the mid-2000's. They are not much different in durability or comfort to my Levi's that were several times more expensive. The cheap ones get harder used if anything - as I avoid wearing the Levi's for doing anything that might mess them up.

 

[Reynard]

@Reynard My mum used to make cushion casings from any suitable material, and would cut a worn bedsheet down the middle, and sew it back together with the outer edges swapped to the centre, to get some more wear out of it. She also would pick up stuff from the jumble sale for pennies, to pick apart and keep the material for repair patches. As a kid, every time I put a hole in the knee of my trousers, they received a repair patch and I received a bollocking.
TBH, I've not noticed much difference in durability of denims related to cost. I've got multiple pairs of Tesco's "value" straight leg jeans that cost me £3 a pop in the mid-2000's. They are not much different in durability or comfort to my Levi's that were several times more expensive. The cheap ones get harder used if anything - as I avoid wearing the Levi's for doing anything that might mess them up.

Hah, my mum was much the same. Her mum, Granny Martha, trained as a seamstress, so I guess the habit runs in the family

I, on the other hand, am a short, curvaceous female, and finding comfortable jeans in leg lengths that don't leave me sweeping the street as I walk along is like searching for the Holy Grail...

So Gap crop boot cut jeans for "good" jeans, and M&S short straight cut for everyday stuff etc. The ones that are now too big for me (widthways) have been relegated to work jeans. OK, need the full belt-and-braces approach with those, but they're fine for mechanical tinkering, gardening, walking my friend's dogs.