A Good Dog's Quinceañera

Plus visible mending

I hope it’s obvious this party isn’t really for the dog.

As I wrote about last summer, my sweet girl Rory, is—excuse me—old af. Since that update on her last year, her vision has gotten worse and she struggles with stairs, but otherwise her energy is steady (as in, she has always been lazy). We are still treating the arthritis, and the vet put her on a diet to support her kidneys. Not only did the new food put her kidney tests back in the normal range, but she loves it and wakes abruptly from a nap at 4:15 every day and harasses me for an hour until I feed her.

The alpacas come to pay homage to birthday girl, Rory.

For a few months, we have joked about having a quinceañera for Rory as she turns 15. I think I felt superstitious about scheduling it, like it would be a jinx, but a couple of weeks ago, when things felt tense, but Rory looked good, I decided to send a message out to the “Thanksgiving Crew,” the small group of local friends/cousins who we invite for holidays and such. The party was on. Who couldn’t use a little cake?

Suddenly, My Dog is Old

Years ago, Julio and I were invited to a chicken quinceañera hosted by a friend, Ryan, and his sister, Molly, to celebrate their chickens moving into their outdoor coop. She even wanted to choreograph a dance for the chickens, which—now that I have a lot more experience with chickens—has only become more hilarious to me. The dance did not work out, but the party was still memorable.

As we were planning a little quinceañera for our little dog, I asked Julio if he had gone to many growing up. My only real experience was watching the MTV show about them in the years when My Super Sweet 16 was a hit. Julio said the only time he went to a quinceañera was when he was an attendant in his cousin’s: “We had to dance to a ‘bachata,’ which is a Latin American music genre that (at the time) was new and hip (ie, not traditional).”

I tried to keep things simple. For our canine quinceañera, I made fajita bowls (sautéed peppers and onions, quinoa, salsa, avocado, and tempeh), chips and guac, and watermelon. For beverages, we had lemonade, seltzer, and non-alcoholic Coronas (an excellent NA beer for summer). My daughter and I made a cake that looked like Rory. I did this with my youngest sibling, MJ, back when Rory was a puppy and I could not find the photo! We also had a gluten-free lemon drizzle cake.

Daughter and I made a Pin the Bow on Rory game using a half of posterboard we had on hand, construction paper, and some masking tape.

I thought about getting Rory a treat from the bakery case at the pet shop up the street, but I knew she wouldn’t eat it, so instead we got her the birthday version of Lambie, which is one of two toys she still cares about. But, surprise! She devoured the treats that our friends brought her.

A groomer recently put bows on Rory, which was not normal for her, but one of them lasted until the party! We hung out in the yard while the alpacas grazed and Rory moved from lap to lap to avoid Theodora, who either wants to sniff her or stomp her, none of us are sure.

Happy Birthday, Rory!

---

In/Visible Mending

My mom used to love telling a story about when she and my dad were newlyweds and he asked her to darn a sock. She shook her finger at it and said, “Darn sock! Get a new one.” Recently, I have been working on mending some clothes and it got me thinking about that story and what it reveals about how they grew up. My dad’s dad (Papa) is a self-made man who had a successful career as an engineer, but he and my bubbe were born in Appalachia and the Rust Belt during the Great Depression. My dad was their oldest child, born in 1956 when things were still lean. Of course he thought socks should be darned.

By comparison, my mother’s family has deeper roots in the middle class. My great-great-grandfather worked as a law clerk at the State Department and then at the new Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. My great-grandmother grew up in relative privilege until she went off to college and fell in love with a classmate, the son of Quaker farmers who would become a beloved tennis coach and professor of speech. Theirs is one of my favorite love stories.

I asked my grandmother if she remembered her mother mending things. She said she did not, but her mother-in-law used a darning egg to mend socks. And thus, the conversation came full circle to darning socks. I checked back in with Mom, who says she never used a darning egg (obvi), but she knew about it.

Mom is also younger than Dad was, part of what she (and President Obama) call “Generation Jones.” The consumer culture changed a lot even in a few short years. Recently, Grandma and I were discussing plastic pollution and how this issue, combined with economic uncertainty, is bringing back some practices that were once the norm, such as using cloth diapers, rags for cleaning, and mending things.

One of my favorite garments is a corduroy shirt dress with a woodland animal print. I got it on eBay in 2010 after seeing it on Glee (yep). At the time, I bought a lot of expensive dresses from Anthropologie brands such as Maeve on eBay at prices I could barely afford on my grad stipend. Some of them are still favorites, like this one, and are an example of quality clothing going the distance. I already replaced a button a few years ago, but in April, I reached for something and one of the cap sleeves split. Although Julio says it’s because my shoulders are so “swole” from barn and garden work, it’s just the old fabric. I stitched it with a concealed backstitch. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough, especially because I usually wear this dress with a cardigan.

Me in the dress celebrating finishing my Ph.D. with Julio in 2016. The split. The fix.

I have a long, open-weave cardigan that has been in my wardrobe since 2004. It’s a staple for me because it is light and airy, but sometimes my sensitive skin needs sleeves. Big holes developed in the cuffs. The photos were uninteresting and would put me over email length, but I found embroidery floss that was the same color as the knit and closed the holes. I located tiny dropped stitches to run the thread through and reconnected them to the seam. Very satisfying.

In May, one of the back pockets ripped on my chambray capris. Honestly, these pants are not very flattering. I bought them postpartum, and about a year ago, I realized they look so dumpy on me now. But they are comfortable and I like to wear them around the garden. So, I decided to do some visible mending on them. The fabric around where the pocket ripped has gotten threadbare. After closing the tear, I added some moths copied from The Embroidered Closet¹ to reinforce the fabric. I ironed on a stabilizer, which should keep the whole thing sturdy for a while longer. I wanted to do something more representative of visible mending (like closing the tear with a vine), but it was such a large area that I needed a bigger image. And, frankly, I liked the moths a lot.

My daughter ripped a small hole in these gray leggings, so I sewed it shut with a flower in colors she picked. Not my best work, but good practice.

There is something about these pink polka dot pants that makes my daughter always have her worst playground spills in them. She’s ripped through the knees in two pairs in the last year. I turned one pair into shorts for her. Anyone else have to argue with your kid about wearing pants?

We also had what my daughter called a “Hot Glue Festival.” Over the past couple of months, anytime something little broke, I’d tell her to put it on my desk and we’d fix it with the hot glue gun later. A small pile of randoms built up: a foam banana we used to prank Julio, a carrot pen she got at an egg hunt, a little mermaid ring that just showed up one day. Then, the bow fell off one of her doll’s shoes, and that was the tipping point. All the fixes were a success, which was a relief to the preschooler.

Do you mend garments? Or, do you remember a relative doing so? I am curious if you have family stories like mine that relate to domestic practices evolving or going through cycles over the generations.

---

1. This book was an excellent starting point for me with embroidery, as it clearly explained the use of water-soluble pattern paper, heat-soluble ink, and stabilizers. And it includes a variety of patterns for adding a little flair to collars and such.