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Sometimes it’s worth it to fix up an item rather than trashing it. When you’re able to use things longer, you naturally are able to buy fewer things. With clothes, bedding, and fabrics, that’s when a little hand sewing comes in “handy!”
I am not a seamstress by any means. In fact, I’m not great at sewing in general.
But it only takes a couple of hours to learn a few simple hand stitches. I know this because I took a beginner’s class at my local community center a few years ago. And that’s all it took for me to start making use of this skill.
There are plenty of free online courses like this one on Instructables.com that you can take to get hand sewing basics. I highly recommend grabbing a needle, thread, and an old rag, and spending an evening learning this skill.
Since taking my one-evening course, I’ve fixed quite a few things in our home with a little hand sewing- pillows, shirts, pants, blankets, stuffed animals, bags, buttons, girl scout badges, and more!
Fixing these things only takes a few minutes, prolongs the life of your items, and saves a lot of money. Plus, you get the satisfaction of knowing you fixed it!
Examples of small issues worth fixing and are easy fixing with hand sewing:
- loose/missing buttons
- rips along the seams
- unraveling hems
- your kids’ favorite stuffed animals
If the item just really is too far gone and can’t be fixed with a little hand sewing, I will often keep it in my craft room to use as fabric for my other harebrained projects that I will inevitably think up. But you do you!
