Last Updated on October 8, 2018 by Diane Hoffmaster
Have you ever looked at your feet and wondered how to mend socks? I can’t sew…my proficiency with a needle and thread ends at putting a button back on a shirt. I find this very sad and one day, when I am graced with much more free time than I have now, I would like to learn how to mend socks. My grandmother used to make my clothes when I was little in addition to the baby blankets that my children are still using today. She made her own dish rags, rugs, and was proficient at mending socks as well. Mending socks is a lost art. Sure, there are a few people out there who still know how to do it but there are a lot more holey socks than there are sock menders! My laundry room alone is filled with socks who’s soles have worn out and are now destined for the rag bin. If you don’t know how to mend socks, either, I will share a few ways to reuse them at the end of my post.
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Base Photo Courtesy of Morguefile
How to Mend Socks and Other Lost Skills
Our lack of ability in the area of mending socks isn’t the only thing we have forgotten how to do. We no longer fix vacuum cleaners, glue coffee mug handles back on or find creative uses for broken flower pots. We are a throw away society. Generations before us learned how to reduce, reuse, and recycle their old stuff because they had no other choice. New socks cost money….learning how to mend socks only took time and a little bit of thread. We used to have more time than money. Not anymore. Now we have money and our holey socks get tossed out in the next day’s trash.
Here is a random piece of trivia for you: In the United States, approximately 150,000,000 socks are sold each year. Where do a vast majority of these socks come from? China. (Yiwu, China is actually know as “sock town” and produced over three billion pairs of socks for Wal-Mart, Pringle and Disney last year.) Where do all the holey ones go? Right to the dump.
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While learning how to mend socks is a useful skill, I really want you to start thinking about the broader concept of our throwaway society. If every person chose to fix just one broken item instead of tossing it aside to buy new we would be well on our way to easing the burden on our landfills. Can you imagine how high a pile of 150 million socks would be? That’s a lot of socks!
If you are feeling ambitious and DO want to learn about mending socks, here is a video from YouTube on how to do it:
Watch and learn how to mend socks!
Have you ever tried mending socks?
Diane has a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology with a Minor in Health Management and Policy. She spent many years working in cancer research, academics, and biotechnology. Concern over the growing incidence of human disease and the birth of her children led her to begin living a more natural life. She quickly realized that the information she was learning along the way could be beneficial to many others and started blogging as a way to share this knowledge with others. While passionate about health and the environment she can’t quite give up her favorite Cheetos and Diet Coke! Learn more about her HERE.
I taught my fiance how to mend socks a few years back! I also like to use them as rags.
I don’t know how to mend socks, unfortunately. We have used old socks as hand puppets, though. That’s a good idea to keep in your car as a place to put the end of your wet umbrella.
Honestly, I was just thinking about this!! My grandma darned socks and I thought, how hard can it be? So I might just take your suggestion to heart! Great post!
so glad you found it helpful!