RUDE is on Green Issues by Agy’s Making Good Blog Train and is combining this blog train post with our regular weekly Friday blog post. Agatha Lee is hosting the journey and has invited RUDE to jump on board today.
Fellow blogger Christine boarded the train yesterday and has shared her intricate weaving and embroidery repair at http://rhinestic81.blogspot.sg/2015/05/making-good-weaving-embroidery-mending.html
As the Blog Train’s host, Agatha is asking passengers taking the ride with her the following:
What is repair, and why do we even bother to repair the things we have? Some see repair as a way of reconnecting with our possessions as we extend their lives. Others see it as a form of creative potential and an avenue to express their craft. The rewards for mending varies from feeling immense satisfaction to prolonging the life of the product.
Thank you Agatha for inviting RUDE aboard and today it is just RUDE Girl travelling. RUDE Boy is off driving his own train for VLine.
For RUDE, repair is mostly about respect for the things that we have in our possession. That respect very much extends to all the people who were involved in the making of our stuff. We bother to repair almost everything in our household [and in some other people’s households] because that’s the way we were bought up by our parents. To mend and make do. Our parents did it to make their hard earning money go further. We do it for that reason too but also to be environmentally responsible.
And best of all is that we enjoy the process of repair. It is like a craft activity to make something old and/or worn out, new again. And of course there is that immense satisfaction for RUDE of beating The Man. We know that by prolonging the life of a product, we will not be shopping and playing into the hands and minds of powerful multinational companies.
I’m usually in jammies and slippers by 8 P.M.
RUDE Girl relates to Kate Dickie’s quote above, especially in winter when I hibernate at home. I prefer not to wear shoes inside the house therefore my slippies can be on most of the day.
I was blessed by my Bowerbirds Journal Facebook group’s member Jaimee with two pairs of her beautiful soft and comfortable, handmade with love, ballet style slippies.
Photo above: My first pair of handmade slippers by Jaimee of Piggy Whiskers
Of course wearing both pairs of slippies, non-stop over the past couple of years, had resulted in them becoming very worn. Before the slippers deteriorated further, this Blog Train with its Making Good theme, inspired me to think about paying respect to Jaimee, the maker of my slippers. It became my mission, no matter what, to pay tribute to her, and revamp the two pairs of slippers I had received from her.
But how to do this without a pattern was the question. I have since received the pattern for the slippers from Jaimee but when I repaired my slippers I had to improvise.
I will present in a little detail, the first pair being repaired in the body of the post. And at the end of the post I will only post photos of the second pair before and after repair.
Photo below: Slippers have been deconstructed and these are the worn soles. The green wool fabric is the inner sole and the pattern fabric was the cotton outer sole.
Photo Above: The top of the deconstructed slippers was removed from the soles and a new piece of fulled wool cut to shape for the new sides.
I cut templates from the old soles and sides of the slippers. This time I used a fused double layer of English woollen fabric for the soles [inner and outer]. This fabric came from the sleeves of a duffle coat made in England that I now wear as a long line gillet aka vest [photo below].
This has proved to be a good decision because the wool repels the dust and dirt. It is also wearing well as the fabric is stronger than the cotton. To enable easy replacement of the soles down the track, I have handsewn the soles to the uppers.
x3 Photos above: My ballet style slippies have been made good again!
Photo below: Inner [wool] and outer [denim] soles of second pair of slippers.
x6 Photos below: My second pair of ballet style slippies have been made good again.
In the photos above of my second pair of revamped slippers, I have kept the seam from the original outer denim soul. I like the textured ‘rude’ look. I have also repaired a hole in the inner back of the left slipper area with some green cotton fabric and sashiko stitch.
Beat The Man and make good again!
Tomorrow I am pleased to announce that the Blog train will be boarded by the very crafty Kareena of
www.letsgoflyakiteuptothehighestheight.blogspot.sg/
Follow the “Making Good” blog train this month and see what other blog travellers on board have repaired and reconnected with. Have you mended anything today?
At Home with Mend It Aussie 