Winter of Care and Repair Challenge results, a Make Nine finish

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.

Upcycling and Repurposing

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.

Mending a burn hole in the red dish towel

The Winter of Care and Repair Challenge started on December 21 with the Winter Solstice. My latest mend for this Challenge was on a dish towel that “got too close” to one of the burners on the stove. (No fire, but it left a sizeable hole in the towel.)

My Winter of Care and Repair, December 21 2023 - March 19, 2024.

Goals for my Winter of Care and Repair

The parameters I set for myself in the Winter of Care and Repair Challenge focus on textiles:

• mending and repairing
• upcycling/repurposing
• organizing my fabric and yarn stash (not making much progress with this goal)
• finding ways to minimize scraps.

As part of my commitment to this 3-month Challenge, I was determined to mend the burn hole in the red dish towel. I decided to use a patch rather than try a weaving mend.

A burned hole in the dish towel.

The repair process

After brushing off the singed part, I traced the shape of the hole on a piece of paper. 

The hole was almost 1.5”.

I decided to use knit fabric for the patch instead of a woven so I didn’t have to turn under the edges.

Making a paper template for the patch.

The patch was cut about an inch larger (all around) than the paper template (the size of the hole). The patch was pinned to the right side with another fabric scrap placed on the under side to conceal (sandwich) the hole. Five additional circle patches were added to the towel to make the appliqué circles look “intentional”—like a “design element”—rather than a single patch over a hole.

Pinning various circle patches to embellish (and repair) the towel.

Using matching cotton embroidery floss, the patches were secured with a running stitch—starting on the outside of the circle and moving toward the center in a circular design. After stitching, the patches were trimmed closer to the stitching line.

Running stitches secured the circles to the towel.

The matching red embroidery floss blended with the fabrics. The stitching added a textured pattern to the appliquéd circles.

Appliquéd circles embellish the repaired dish towel.

My red dishtowel is now back in circulation! It’s shown here with three hand woven sock coasters. These coasters/trivets are made by upcycling socks with the Loopy Loom. They are quick and fun to make and address another category (upcycle/recycle) of my Care and Repair effort.

Newly repaired towel with woven sock coasters.

A Winter of Care and Repair Challenge

The topics of mending (visible and invisible), maintaining and caring for our wardrobes, sustainability, and eliminating waste from fast fashion are very prevalent these days. Jeanna Wigger, @thepeoplesmending, has proposed a winter "Call to Action" to promote the idea of repairing and caring for clothes, accessories, and other items with the "Winter of Care and Repair" project. Care to give it a go?

Winter Care and Repair Challenge 2023
#winterofcareandrepair2023

How to participate in Winter Care and Repair 2023

Jeanna suggests customizing the project to your individual needs, skill level, and degree of participation. Participants can use this project as a framework for a personal Mending To-Do list. The project, or Challenge, also serves as a a good motivator as others will be participating—and there is strength (encouragement) in numbers.

I'm going to participate with a focus on textiles:

• mending and repairs, 
• upcycling/repurposing, 
• organizing my fabric stash, and 
• finding ways to minimize scraps. 

I've read other great Challenge pledges that include maintaining or repairing things beside textiles and garments, such as:

• tending a garden and prepping it for the next season's plantings,
• de-cluttering a room/house/garage,
• repurposeing or repairing (rather than disposing of) other household items,
• strengthening habits to promote personal health and mental well-being.
  
  

The timeframe: Solstice to Equinox

The Winter Care and Repair project goes from the Winter Solstice to the Spring Equinox—December 21, 2023 to March 19, 2024. 

Mend/Repurpose prompt from Make Nine 2023

I'll incorporate the Winter of Care and Repair pledge into my 2024 Create Daily practice. In my past three Make Nine Challenges in 2021, 2022, and 2023, I've included prompts related to this topic so I feel I'm cognisant of this practice. (See my previous Make Nine prompt pages in this blog post.)

Do you have a mending pile? 

This is is the perfect project to whittle down that mending pile! I have a few items in need of stitching and mending and there are likely others that will pop up between now and the Spring Equinox. I like that this project is also a good reminder that "loved clothes last" and a quick mend will keep them in circulation much longer. 

A stitch in time saves nine,
               ... and keeps textiles out of landfills and the waste stream.