For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 25, 2021

“Clothes need mending,” ask John, Michael, and Elizabeth in unison.

Wow. Great timing. I just reached into my pile of projects and am almost done with my mending/finishing work. It’ll be nice to get to wear/use items that have been languishing for half a year…

Is it normal for a family when they notice new/old clothes in their closets, they immediately put them on and gather to wonder where they came from? Also, it’s a good thing that the Pattersons only wear really baggy clothing, because in most families if the kid has not worn a shirt in years, that shirt is too small for them

Is Mike shrinking because he’s ill? Mike just turned the age of 16 so if he hadn’t seen that shirt in four years then that means a shirt he wore when he was 12 now looks like it is a size too big for him!

Yes, it foreshadows a future plot where Mike shrinks to being 2’4".

I thought the same thing. If it’s been years, none of it would fit the kids.

I also left the mending to my wife – until I got a racing bicycle with tubular tires. Every flat tire (about once a week) had to be cut open, patched, and sewn up. Once you have sewn through a tire, clothes are a cinch.

I taught my son how to use a needle and thread. He can do his own mending.

That’s sew crazy, it just might work.

Which reminds me… I’ve got a few articles of clothing to repair… both modern, and reenactor…

Getting laundry done at last (washing is done but they sit in the dryer for days) around my house renders same reaction.

Comics suspend reality.

“mending”? You mean like patching and sewing stuff? Wow! I forgot people used to do that instead of just selling it to mall rats for 5 times its “new” cost.

Okay. Similar thing. When I was five, mom used to make our clothes because they couldn’t afford to buy store bought. She took me to the fabric store to pick out fabric for a shirt. I picked out some fabric that was blue and white stripes with railroad heralds all over it… When my parents retired, and I was in my 30s, I helped them move into their retirement home. In one box, I found the unfinished shirt mom had begun when I was five. My mom wasn’t great at finishing things….

mending? what is that

The job you are facing may be not your favorite thing to do, but it does feel good when it is done. Sometimes, I have a treat saved for myself when I’m finish. It’s a reward. Kinda like dangling a carrot on a stick in front of me ; )

I thought they were passing clothes around that didn’t fit the grownups anymore

No other Pattersons can sew?

Just rotating the crops…

My wife was wearing what I thought was a new outfit and I commented on it – “Oh, that looks nice! When did you get that?”

To which she replied, rather sheepishly, “About seven years ago. I just got around sewing it to fit me.”

Wow. Elly wants John & the kids to do everything NOW NOW NOW, but she waits months or years to mend their clothes. At her size, talk about a HIPPOcryte!

At least it isn’t the laundry.

Loved this one.

We don’t sew.

Can we say Elly is on the mend?

Sounds like me on mending or buttons, once a great while I do it. Children clothes never bother with as the kids clothes never got warn enough.