repairs

the captain, a three legged dog

well what can I say? the impulse to save runs deep. my mother's mother managed her family through the great depression, and taught me to collect stray slivers of soap for reuse. she also fined us a nickel every time we left lights on in an empty room. this collection of mended clothing is a vestige of that time and of that time of need. a number of years ago I wanted to throw away a moth eaten woolen shirt, but simply couldn't do it outright, and saved some of the mended parts for later. this is that later.

mended hole in sleeve

bra strap with another hole to mend

sweater cuff

mended buttonholes-wool shirt

east german work jacket 1

I found the following two jackets at the very bottom of a box of clothes at a flea market in Kiel Germany in 2000. The woman sold them to me for 50 pfennig each, but didn't know why I would buy them. the pockets still contained splashes of solder in their crevices.