To Mend Or Not To Mend

Since the Dhaka factory incidents, there are many reports on newspaper on how the fast fashion industry is damaging the environment, exploiting the workers, etc. The fashion retailers are churning out new collections very fast and people are buying more clothes than ever. So, very often one clothing item would be left in the back of the cabinet after one or two wears, or in the extreme case, never unpacked from the shopping bag. When people buy more, more natural resources are used up, polluted more water, and finally, add more textile dumping. 

It's scary to read about that. I think I am not a crazy shopper for clothes. However, I still got a number of T-shirts, shirts, pants, socks, etc. I tried very hard not to buy more clothes unnecessarily, in fact, it's been more than six months since I last bought a shirt for work.

I owned a lot of T-shirts, some are more than 10 years old, I owned it since when I was a teenager and still going strong. Sometimes, I hope it just break and I can toss it. However, the worst thing that could happen to a T-shirt was just the threads came off. I felt weird when I read the comments on the fast fashion articles, some readers said that their H&M or Zara clothes were gone after a few wash, the thread came out. I had clothes from H&M and Zara, it's still fine after many wash. Same story with other really cheap T-shirts, the society T-shirts, souvenir T-shirts, etc, If I really like the T-shirt (the well worn type, very comfortable to wear), I would stitch it and if another side have that issue after a while, I would turn it into a cleaning rags happily.

If a button came off from a shirt or pants, I would definitely repair it. However, with my current stock of T-shirts, I will have a hard time to finish wearing all of them. I don't even dare to think to wear all the T-shirts until worn out. So, I had some doubts in my mind, should I mend the T-shirt? If I repair it, I am doing a bit for the environment, I extend the life of a clothing item. If I don't, it's still not going into the dustbin, it will become a cleaning rag first before going to the dump site. 

simple stitches to save the T-shirt

If the fabric direct tear off or socks became too loose until keep slipping off, I could just get rid of it. If it's simple thing like the thread came off or button came off, I can and know how to fix it, but should I do it? In a dilemma. 

I really want to get new Marvel T-shirts!!!!!!