Mending a Tear

A few nights ago, I ripped a hole in the bottom sheet on our bed. You see, there was a minuscule particle of grit that had somehow gotten under the sheet (at least, I think it was under it), and I have a bit of a hatred of dust/grit in my bed, so I had to rip it out. Unfortunately, I had a bit of sheet between my fingers as well, and this was the result. So instead of letting the hole get bigger and bigger until I threw the sheet out, I pulled it straight off the bed (well, next morning, I didn't get up to do it in the middle of the night, rest assured), and mended it. The rest of the sheet is still in good condition, and being nice, expensive, 100% cotton sheets, I didn't want to have to buy new ones straight away.

It was easy to mend. If you're not craftily inclined, you can buy iron on patches that will do a fair job of this sort of mending, but I prefer to go for the cheaper option. I cut a square of cotton out of an old sheet that was too far gone to mend, and pinned it behind the tear. Then I sewed around the edges to hold it in place, then in close to the tear, then finally, zig-zagged over the actual tear itself. Luckily I still had green thread on my machine from making the Teddy Bear, so it even matched.

I actually feel really satisfied doing things like this. I mean, for taking the time to do a 10 minute job, I actually saved $100! This is actually much better even than if I'd made $100, as I don't have to pay tax on it! Not to mention not needing to take the time, energy and fuel to go buy a new set of sheets!

It's more than just the saving though, I feel productive, and I feel a connection to the things and people in my house when I do jobs like this. Now I have a couple of DH's cargo pants sitting on my machine, waiting for a similar treatment.