Sorry. Couldn't resist.
Last week's flummoxing repair job was this:
A rabbit fur muff hand warmer had rotting seams. Initially, we thought I could just stitch it up, but it turns out the hide was rotting and every time I stuck a needle in it, the thread would shred through.
Thus began my internal dialogue between my angel and devil repair self:
D: You could just snip out some of the top stitching and glue a piece of fabric to the tear and then stitch it back up. It would be a 30 minute job,
A: You should probably take the whole thing apart, lay it out flat and fix it right.
D: But that would be an all-day job and we only quoted the woman $20 for the simple stitiching.
A: Then call her, you idiot, because she might be willing to pay the extra shekels, especially if it has some sentimental value to her.
D: Fine, but if she says no, we're doing it my way.
The angel won that argument. Turns out the woman's daughter loved the thing and she wanted to make sure it lasted long enough for her to enjoy it.
So, I removed everything: the lining and the down-filled warmer
Once I got in there, I saw there were more than just seams rotting. there were holes that were beginning to form in the hide itself. So, using glue and fabric, I taped up the holes and edged along the tears. I also laid down some masking tape over the seams that seemed to be OK, just to give them some extra reinforcement and protection. (Apparently, that's a common practice. I thought it was odd but Terry, our designer/shoe maker, said, Nope, that's the way they do it.)
I hand stitched it all up and then turned it inside out to begin reassembling it.
It didn't turn out half bad.
I even patched a little bald spot with some fluffy black rayon fabric. I just glued it in there and snipped the fuzzies so it looked more like rabbit hair. It's in the picture, you just can't see it!
The whole time I was stitching it, I was listening to the news on my little bluetooth speaker. With all the scandals, the lead-up to what could be a very devastating war with nuclear consequences, with all of our institutions running rampant and rabid, here I sit in the Driftless, repairing someone's memory for a future generation that may not even be around due to the repercussions of today's warmongering. I'm not trying to be eloquent or anything, (because if I were, I'd be gravely disappointed in myself right now) But I gotta' wonder: With everything that is going on, why bother repairing anything? What are we saving things for? If all hell breaks loose, will anything be worth saving?
But when I was finished and I looked at my work, I looked at my little black puff ball looking almost as good as it did when it was first made, I was satisfied. It had been productive day doing honest work. I learned a bit about something I had no idea I even wanted to know. And the person who owns it can now give it to her daughter, (hopefully) knowing something she valued will be valued by people long after she's gone. And maybe, if all hell breaks loose, the art of repairing things will be a valued skill because when those rich fuckers who want war blow up the world, it'll be people like us, the rest of us, who will set out to fix what they broke and maybe, this time, we'll make the world better.
