Fixing a hole in a sock is easy. Really. You don't have to be an awesome seamstress and you don't need specialized equipment. It takes a few minutes, and your sock will be almost as good as new. Plus, your big toe will be nice and toasty again, and no one except you will ever have to know that you rarely make time to paint your nails!
Fix a hole in your sock in 4 easy steps
That's it. Way to go, sock fixin' pro star!
Why should I bother fixing a sock?
I'm sure you're thinking: socks are pretty inexpensive. I can replace them whenever I want to!! Sure, you can just toss the sock with the hole and grab a new pair from the mall. But repairing a hole or tear is so easy and gives an otherwise perfectly good pair of socks a second life. I'm not suggesting that you repair moth-eaten, tired, permanently smelly socks that have lost any elasticity they ever had. But mending a small hole or wear mark is like giving yourself an eco-high five. You get points for taking care of what you have, it saves you some cash and makes you feel like a real live pioneer, which is pretty cool, in a school-marm kinda way.
Repairing socks, or darning, as it's called, was something that most homemakers just did. It wasn't weird or special. It was just a part of maintaining clothing. They would stitch up little holes and wears with the help of a darning egg or a darning spool (both of which are typically wooden tools that fits inside a sock to keep the fabric nice and tight while you stitch up the hole). But you don't need a darning egg or spool: just use something with a rounded end, like a cup or beer bottle, that can fit inside a sock. Or even one of those cute little round lip balm containers. Double duty, amiright?!?
The goal of darning a sock isn't necessarily to repair and repair and repair until there's more of your own handiwork than there is original sock. It's about making small fixes when necessary to maintain your clothes instead of just discarding them. Go team green!
Now that you're such a pro, you should try fixing a button or a drawstring!