How To Make Old Clothes New: A Lesson In Darning, Patching And Mending

The Book Of Knowledge is a rather misleading name. It's actually a set of books, similar to encyclopedias, intended for children -- or for the education of children, with many articles appearing to have been written for children and adults to read together &/or to instruct children from. We have about 3/4 of the volumes in the antique 20 volume set.

This particular section, How To Make Old Clothes New: A Lesson In Darning, Patching And Mending, comes from Volume XI (circa 1910's).



Like most people, I've heard of darning -- even seen the old darning tools (darning eggs and darning mushrooms), but never tried it. We've all become accustomed to suffering with holes in the toes of our socks until we can't stand it anymore and then head to WalMart for another package of socks; but as I sit here with my big toe poking out, I'm beginning to think that darning it tonight while I watch television would be much cheaper (and busy hands might just keep me from smoking less too).

Plus, according to The Book Of Knowledge, it's so simple a child could do it. I must be at least as simple as a child.