I'm grabbing every favourite piece of clothing I have around the house and mending it with a needle and thread
I'm not very good at it, but it's not terribly hard to close up broken seams good enough for some use. It sure as heck beats buying a new pair of jeans for $70 just because I somehow destroy the crotch every year
I'm finding this to be really satisfying and relatively easy to do. Certainly I can develop better stitching technique and use better tools and material, but it's easy enough to be good enough, or so it seems to me now
@StudioCaroline@mastodon.social recommended I try "underpatching", where you use some fabric to give the stitch something to hold on to beyond the already compromised material. Some people even do this in overt ways for the look of it. Here's one they shared, OP @ https://mastodon.social/@StudioCaroline/110521864616379151
Yeah, you do end up having to do this. I have the exact same problem as OP, in that my crotch desires to rip and tear any pants I wear. Stitching the tear up will only work for so long, get some extra material under there to hold it for a bit longer.
I just did this with some jeans a few days ago. I'm a weirdo and have a hand crank Singer 128 that does a great job on extra thick fabric. I've found that my new singer heavy duty machine can't handle fabric that is very thick.
Oh I'm broke and got a needle, thread, and a complete unwillingness to throw out my pants. Good to know about new singer machines though, I've been thinking about learning how to sew.
That's where I started. Every time I have extra money things get out of hand! I hate seeing a good pair of pants go to waste over a small hole.
Ha! Tell me about it. I got into spinning and I can hardly stop myself. I'm looking down the barrel of dying my own wool now with local trees and 3d printing myself a rigid heddle loom. Fibre arts truly desire your entire soul once you get into it.