Fix-it Time

We believe that part of being an artisan fixing things when they get broken. This is important because it allows you to practice artisanal skills such as sewing. Moreover, this allows us to remain in touch with the items that we love and resist participation in the extremely wasteful practice of buying, using, and throwing out. What choice do you have but to fix something that you love that isn’t made anymore? For example, when dave’s favorite corduroys get a rip they must be sewed because he has search for a comparable pair for 6 years finding no other pair rivals his favorites. How better to honor those pants that have served you well for years than to mend them rather than cast it out to the landfill? That is what this post is all about.

Dave’s glasses have been an ongoing object of repair. The pictures don’t really capture what has been going on and it is difficult to explain so we hope this makes sense. It all began 6 months ago. Dave’s glasses developed a crack on the top of the left rim (above the lens). It looked ominous but it didn’t really get worse - they pretty much stayed that way for 5 months. Then he dropped them onto the tile in the bathroom and they snapped – the lens flew out, it was quite a scene. If you don’t have glasses you may not know how terrifying this is. The bitter irony of vision impairment is that if your glasses break you can’t see to fix them. Renee picked up the lens and the frames and was relieved to discover it was just a crack along the top rim, the fissure from before had given way and could no longer hold the lens. Time for new glasses??? No! Using some packing tape renee placed the lens back in and taped the top. It looked pretty crappy for days, maybe weeks, until she went back and trimmed to tape more closely. About a 1.5 months later, disaster struck again. While at king’s chef diner dave attempted to clean his glasses. They broke again! This time, the top and bottom cracked, resulting in the glasses falling in two pieces plus the lens of course. Needless to say dave was very crabby and we had to get our food to go. When we arrived home renee employed the packing tape again and dave’s glasses are back together again. We are not sure how long this fix will last but we are hopeful they will hold on a while longer.

Another recent repair has been the mending of one of renee’s skirts. We are not sure how it all started but a 5-inch gash appeared on the back and bottom of one of her skirts. It should be mentioned that things sometimes go for long periods of time before getting fixed in our house; she wore it several times with the hole and it then lived on her craft table for a while before actually getting fixed. renee took a few minutes to sew it up while watching TV at a friend’s house. Very simple, only took a few minutes, and now the skirt will continue to be worn for an indefinite amount of time. It may be a testament to renee’s sewing skills or the type of pattern on the fabric but after the repaired skirt came out of the wash, she had to search and search for the seam!

Sometimes we dread fixing things. When the chain came off renee’s bike last week, it seemed like it would be a big deal to fix it, and we were not looking forward to this repair job. Last summer, both of renee’s bike tires went flat and dave had to fix them not having done it before. It was a stressful undertaking for the back wheel, since the chain and gears and whatnot had to be taken off and put back on. An hours-long job. This time, renee basically just looked at it and flicked it back on with no problems.

This kind of segues into another important facet of keeping your things in tiptop shape – preventative maintenance. This week, we are hoping to take our car in to have a leaky tire looked at, sharpen our knife set, and get dave’s guitar tuned up. They are the sorts of things we continue to put off, but thinking about this entry has helped to motivate us and hopefully will do the same for you. Do any of you have repair/maintenance stories?