The Winter of Care and Repair Challenge is coming to a close on March 19, the Spring Equinox. In recapping my mends and recycling efforts, I was very pleased with the number of accomplishments.
 |
| Winter of Care and Repair Challenge. December 21, 2023 - March 19, 2024. |
Care and Repair Pledge
My Winter of Care and Repair pledge was focused on textiles. It included these categories:
- mending and repairs,
- upcycling/repurposing,
- organizing my fabric stash, and
- finding ways to minimize scraps.
Mending and Repair
When you sign up to participate in a Challenge, and decide upon your pledge, there’s an on-going awareness of your goals. This definitely made me more involved. One of my successful categories from the pledge was Mending and Repair.
 |
| Replacing missing buttons on two shirts. |
Finishes include:
- abundant button replacements—shirt fronts, shirt cuffs, a jacket—on 5 different garments. (When you ask family members if they have anything that needs mending, the items come out of the woodwork!) One garment was mine and the rest were my husband’s.
- mending a collar on a jacket,
- mending a burn hole in a dish towel,
- mending the patch pocket on a pair of pants, and
- mending a seam in the armscye of a me-made Collins Top.
 |
| Mending the inside collar of a jacket. |
This was another successful category. I've recycled orphan and worn out socks into 7 Loopy Loom woven hot pads.
 |
| Upcycling old socks using the Loopy Loom. |
Upon discovering several old knitting swatches, I decided to frog (un-knit) a few of them and repurposed the yarn in another knitting project. I've completed 3 knitted dish cloths and am working on a pair of placemats with the frogged yarn and leftovers.
 |
| Recycling the yarn from knitted gauge swatches. |
Minimizing Fabric and Yarn Scraps
I continuously work through leftover yarns and fabric scraps in my stash. Completed projects during Winter Care and Repair include four quilt tops for kitty (charity) quilts—made with fabric scraps.
 |
| Scrappy kitty quilt top. |
A pile of discontinued fabric samples was donated to the Friends Life Community, an organization at which my buddy, Jim Sherraden, volunteers as an art teacher.
 |
| Discontinued fabric scrap donation to Friends Life Community. |
Yarn scraps are being knit into a pair of placemats. One placemat is complete and the other nearly finished.
 |
| Scrap yarn knitted placemat. |
Organizing the stash
Even though I was unable to attack a big organization project, small dents were made in the yarn and fabric stashes through this online Challenge. I found and repurposed the knit gauge swatches and used up scraps for the charity quilts.
On a positive note, I will say that various articles of clothing got mended much quicker and thus back into circulation because of the Challenge. The Challenge created more focus on the idea of valuing what we already own instead of discarding and buying new. I'm happy about that.
The second Make Nine finish for 2024
This online Challenge is fulfilling my Make Nine 2024 Online Challenge prompt. I continue the search for creative scrap projects for fabrics and yarn. And I've also set aside other items for mending and repairing.
 |
| Make Nine 2024 tracker. |
Winter of Care and Repair was a worthwhile Challenge! Thank you to Jeanna Wigger at @thepeoplesmending for hosting this Challenge.
