Wednesday 16 May 2018

Mendinspiration 2 - orange hippy pants, and pockets!

Well two weeks ago I wrote my intention to write every week. And then I didn't…

So I thought instead, in the meantime, I'd write about one thing I did when perhaps I could have been writing… Mending my orange hippy pants.

These pants are another free shop favourite from my travels, and after intensive use, by the time I got home, they had one big two sided tear, another small one, and a couple of tiny little holes that could have been the start of something bigger as well. So I finally got around to mending them, thinking they might make good pants for pregnancy with their stretchy top… Of course I didn't quite manage to finish in time since my little treasure bumped the due date forward, but I completed the job I'd started anyway (while meanwhile the small one nestled on me, oh so snuggly warm and cosy and delicious)…

In my usual fashion I decided to patch my pants with an extra decorative touch of some hand stitching in contrasting colours, and also in this case some extra potential functionality, with three pockets of various sizes (one an unnecessary extra, just because I had a small piece of the material left, and because I got excited about pockets, since the stripe covers both the tiny holes). And coincidentally, during my time working on the project, I discovered on facebook that pockets are a subject of equality - how perfect! In any case, one way or another, pockets are awesome, and so very very handy, what's not to love?! So I say, pockets for all - woman, man, hippy orange, or any colour of the rainbow, alike!

So here are some various pictures of my work (with the pants in their two modes). I failed to take any before pictures unfortunately!






In this case the patch material was from a rag bag I got years ago, from a fabric factory near to where I live, which is sadly now closed. No doubt it was made redundant by cheaper imports from places where people are more easily exploited for their cheap labour, and where there may be less other 'costly' restrictions too, such as providing safe workplaces or reducing pollution and other environmental impacts… As always, it is worth remembering that it is important to consider what we are really paying for, or perhaps what we are not paying for… Funny thing, when my pants were free, the patch material was cheap and mending has saved me buying another pair of pants. While meanwhile buying a new pair of pants for that same small amount of money it cost me for the patches is frighteningly quite likely possible in this globalised day and age, but would also quite likely be encouraging the continuation of unethical practices…

And I'm looking forward to wearing my orange pants again, especially because orange is the colour of the sacral chakra, the seat of creativity, so hopefully they will inspire me to continue to express my creativity!

For previous meanderings on the topic of mending, one of my favourite themes, see here for Mendinspiration 1 - Mending my working in the garden pants, or here for my Make, Mend, Maintain page.

Some more photos of the mended pants, with my extremely cute modelling assistant tucked up in the sling to add to the look. :-)



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