Attacking the Mending Pile

Soooo this post topic is a bit of a stretch for something that poses as a travel blog. I am about to tell you about my awesome evening last night attacking my two-year built-up mending pile. Yes, mending. At this point I offer you every liberty to surf right along onto your next internet errand. Because I am about to attempt my first fashion-related blog post. You have been warned. 

And on some levels this post is highly relevant to my time on Guam. After all, one of the things I wanted to do here was sew, which I've succeeded at. One of my goals after returning from the trip to Manila was to organize all of my craft supplies and fabrics into one place. After six hours of organizing, sorting, folding and compiling last week, I now have a fabulous sewing closet! And it rivals the golf closet for favorite storage space in our house. (And I am fully aware that last line means we sure are lucky to have such a great house here).

Doesn't look so bad, right? Just wait...

Compiling everything sewing related meant I could no longer ignore the heap of clothes that had accumulated over literally years in the mending pile. Most of these items were given to me as gifts and just didn't fit right, but I liked them enough to hang onto them. Some of them were favorites that broke and as a grandchild of Great Depression survivors, I just can't bear to throw it out and buy a new one. But for one reason or another they landed in the mending pile where I swore I would get to them one day when I had free time.  For some reason Sunday at 8p.m. (when I should have been making myself dinner), I found that day had arrived.

Enter Tragic Frock #1. This sweater from Anthropologie was a Christmas gift from my mom LAST year when we were living in San Diego. I tried it on and immediately thought Mom was trying to tell me something. I look like completely prego! The button-down sweater bunches at the neck and has a tie that creates a clown ruffle collar. Plus it has massive pockets that hit at the hips, creating a baby bump where there most certainly is not one. With any hope this will be the worst picture of me ever posted on the Internet (aside from the subsequent ones I am carelessly about to share).

 I really didn't know if there was hope for this one when I started, but figured I'd give it a shot. I started by trying to remove the maternity-ness from it by slashing out the waste-magnifying pockets. Snip snip...

 Then slashing out the baby belly sweatband cuff on the bottom. Side note: It's really hard to take pictures of yourself cutting something. Slice slice...

And I live near the Equator, so if I have any hope of wearing this thing in the next year, these long sleeves have got to go. Chop chop...

 At this point, I tried on the shirt and played around with it in a zillion different ways. Finally, I realized I could unruffle the clown collar and wrap one of the neck ties through the hole where the pockets had been... and suddenly I realized I was working with a future wrap shirt... hope at last! Now to clean it up.

Buttons have got to go

Sew up those pocket holes

Pin off the areas to trim

I played around with the sleeve length a bit, and just like that, a wearable wrap shirt that I actually really love. At this point, I finally cut the tags off the shirt (surely returning it would have been much easier... but not nearly as rewarding.)

 

The back came out pretty cute too... neck tie through the pocket hole. Who'd of thought?

 Enter tragedy #2. Another Anthropologie shirt that I really loved the fabric for, or I would have ditched it much earlier. This one was a birthday present from my mother-in-law (which apparently my mom helped pick out) and it ALSO makes me look prego. What's the deal, Moms?? These little hints aren't getting you any closer.

So here we have another tragic shirt that I have put on a zillion times to make it work, tried belting it, adding ties, etc. To no avail. It's completely unwearable. Of course I could give it away... or keep dragging it along with me to various spots on the globe until I really am preggers (and FYI, Moms, every maternity-like shirt I get as a gift adds a YEAR to that prospective date). But since I liked the fabric so much, it was also worth a shot.

And again, what's up with the belly-button level pockets? Am I supposed to put my cell phone in there or something? 'Do you know where I can store a pea?' 'Yes, I have some spaces available.' (~Mitch Hedberg)

After assessing my altering options, I realized my best place of attack was along the straight back seam. So my first step was pinning where I wanted to bring it in. Sadly, this is one of the hardest pictures I have tried to take for this blog. You have no idea. And looking at it now I realize it wasn't even worth the effort.

 

After pinning and stitching the new back seam, it's time to snip snip once again.

And voila! Tragedy #2 is now going to be a great edition to my wardrobe for my upcoming girls trip to Korea. Instead of going in the trash. That is something to celebrate, people!

P.S. Taking timer pictures of yourself is super awkward

New seam does not bunch. Or suggest babies are coming. Sweet.

Okay, so if you've read this far, hopefully you don't think this post was as much of a stretch as I did. Or you just couldn't turn your eyes from the train wreck. With any luck I will go hiking or diving or do something adventurous soon to get this post off my home page. But I guess despite all my hesitations, there's a part of me that will always love sewing, even mundane stuff like mending. Creating something out of nothing. Turning useless into useful. Triumph from tragedy. Okay, so that's also a stretch, but hey, you can't argue that I totally conquered Tragic Frock #1.

Before - ewwwww!

After!

In addition, I also walked away from my mending session with a new dress, a new workout shirt, and a new workout bag. So basically I went shopping in my own house :)