Mending favors?

Have you ever gotten into an awkward situation when one of your close friend or family or even acquaintance asks you to mend something for you? Just because I sew, people think that mending other people's clothes is a fun job for me. I don't even mend my own families clothes then, why would I stay up late or wake up early in the morning to mend someone else clothes?

Image Source: http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/69800/69826/69826_lady-mend.htm

Its like just because you can cook, people ask you to cook all the time or for that matter any other thing.

How do you handle this in a polite manner? I am afraid of mentioning to my non-sewing or non-quilting friend that I sew or quilt.

Comments

  1. This hasn't happened to me yet with sewing, but it definitely struck a chord! I have a math-related job, and people always think that there's nothing I'd rather do than volunteer for their organization helping to do the accounting, or some such thing. I usually laugh while explaining that "I do a different kind of math". Maybe that's what you could tell people with sewing - if they're really non-sewers, then they'd probably buy that you simply don't know the mending kind of sewing :-)

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  2. I saw a cool saying on Pinterest that said, " Asking a quilter to mend is like asking Picasso to paint your garage." haha I have just come out and been brazen. I have a full time job and I don't have time for mundane things such as mending. Besides, I HATE mending. I just tell them I don't like mending, but I think Don's Cleaners does:) Really when they ask, They may as well say, I don't want to pay some one to do my mending. Since you sew, will you do it for free?

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  3. I have replied "I know someone who does that work and I would hate to take away their living work from them". I then give them a name. Another I have found useful is to invite them to a sewing session where I will teach them how to do it and they can do their own repairs. And sometimes I simply say that it is against my religion to do zippers.

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  4. I have gotten to the point where I just say "NO!" I sew because I enjoy it and for my sanity. Mending is not fun nor relaxing. Most people understand.

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  5. Hey there ! You could say that quilting isn't the same as mending and you don't know how to mend and suggest they take their clothing to the cleaners. In my case that is the truth. I would only mend something that I wasn't planning in wearing outside the house :)

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  6. LOL! I have used the Picasso line! I also tell people I'm not a seamstress. Unless it's my DIL, and it's a rush for a grandkid, then I do it. One friend, I will do it for, but I told her it's in line...it could be months before I get to it and I'll do it when I feel like it.
    It is presumptuous to even ask. Don't fret too much about being polite!

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  7. Been There Done That. Hated it and still hate mending. I have a tote box full of my clothes and DHs clothes...that I cannot get around to mending! Now for others....I shamelessly refuse.....at the first half sentence of the request...I know exactly when it is coming....I laugh out loud...literally do....that confuses them...and .when I say, " you don't not want a Dermatologist working on your open heart surgery, do you?"...their jaws drop. Trust me the answer is almost always.."No". End of story. So feel free to use this tag line....and make them (the requester) answer their own question!! I wish I had come up with this many many years ago....when I did all their mending because I did not know how to say no. No More!! Enough is Enough!

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  8. i am with you, i do not like to mend clothes

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