Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: World's Raggiest Boxer Shorts Edition

This is the story of a pair of boxer shorts. They are cotton with an exposed wide elastic waist that says Old Navy and very soft. They were given to my son but at the time they were a size too big so he didn't want them.

Since I wear hand me down boxers for pajama shorts in the summer I appropriated them. I don't care if they're too big, they're comfortable. They were worn and washed hundreds of times until finally the elastic gave out. No problem, they were too big anyway, right? I simply cut off the elastic, serged the top of the fabric to keep it from unraveling, then folded it down and sewed the fold in place for a very easy casing which I filled with a slim elastic that I tied together at the ends. I wanted to be able to replace it easily if this elastic wore out as well. I planned to wear these for another bunch of years, until they were nothing but threads thank you very much.

Well, the time of the threads is beginning but I'm not ready to let go. So, out come the pinking shears. I cut a couple of patches from a little boy's shorts project gone wrong (the rest of the project went into my box of fabric scraps for Karen's Online Angels quilting projects and the waste into my stuffing bag) and sewed them over the disintegrating areas of the boxers.

You can see the edge of the waistband elastic in this one.

I plan to add patches as needed until there is no more room to patch. ;)

Mending, Even the Quick-and-Not-So-Perfect Kind, is In These Days.

When I started this job two years ago I was issued a wool overcoat. It is decently well made, but it gets worn in the car on long commutes, has the quilting zipped in and out of it, gets thrown in and pulled out of lockers, closets, on and off coat hooks and chair backs. You get the picture. It is mistreated. Well, mostly the liner is, because when I'm tossing it here and there I do fold it inside out to protect the outside. It is lined with typical flimsy acetate which isn't meant to be, for instance, snagged on coat hooks. So naturally it is torn in a few places. Today I decided to spend five minutes less-than-neatly fixing the liner by trimming off the threads and giving it a quick fix on my serger.

Let me explain two things - first, this coat costs $150 to replace and we only get a $200 allowance toward clothing each year. I refuse to spend the bulk of it on an unattractive coat that only marginally keeps me protected from the elements. Second, you'll rarely see me hand sewing and this is because it hurts to do so. Rather than spend all my day off in pain I chose the easy way out and did a quick and dirty serging rather than a nice, neat and proper job. Perhaps someday I'll be motivated to do it right, but for now I just wanted to stop further damage and save $150.