I went through a seamstress stage in late high school and early college. But lately I haven't sewn much. After all, most Americans are so obsessed with fashion that I can get an entire wardrobe for about $10 used and then wear it for a year or so until the knees fall out of my pants.

Still, it's handy to know a few important stitches when I have something I really want to repair. The fabric on the big pillow at the top of this post dry-rotted, so I made it a new case in about half an hour of hand sewing. Similarly, the patch I put onto my decade-old backpack last fall is still going strong. Gotta love the back stitch!

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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