Sock darning was a major portion of household mending right into the 20th century. When socks were all made by hand, it didn't make sense to just throw them out when they got a hole; it was far better and more economical to darn the holes instead. And as someone who has hand knitted socks, the time that goes into creating these articles of clothing means it's worthwhile to take the effort to preserve them.
I'm watching this as I am altering a coat that I crocheted to make it bigger and longer. I do quite a bit of mending but modern socks aren't worth the effort unless they are wool. I have some handknit socks and they are definitely worth repairing.
I remember my mother and grandmother repairing shirts with worn collars by "turning" the collar. The collar was removed, turned over and reattached. The underside was like new and the worn side hidden. This was as late as the mid 1950's. I think today few people wear their shirts long enough to wear out the collar. Wear may have been increased by hand scrubbing collars perhaps on a washboard.
If I can sew up a hole, or scrub out a stain, then I will. If I can't fix it easily, then it becomes bed time wear, or cleaning/weekend clothes. If it's totally worn out, then it goes into the garbage. I'm the queen of second hand clothes and hand-me-downs lol
Thank you for the video. You're probably aware, but perhaps not, that just a few decades ago, a lot of dry cleaners offered reweaving services. This was a service for men and women who had accidentally ripped their business suits/dress suits, and obviously, the suits needed to be mended without any obvious repair. The reweavers would use threads that would match the torn threads in a damaged suit fabric and carefully reweave the threads in a way to match the thread pattern of the suit. After the repair, no one would be able to see that the suit fabric had been ripped. Nowadays, I doubt that there are more than 10 people in the whole U.S. who know how to reweave a suit fabric.
Thank you for this! I tell my friends that are new to reenacting the early colonial period that everyone could mend and make their clothes! And yes I did share this with them as well! Thank you again for your all's hard work!
I know this channel has a more western focus but, Japan has a form of embroidery called Sashiko that emerged during the Edo period(1603-1867). It was a decorative and functional way to reinforce clothing that was mended or pieced together with simple running stitches.
I’ve darned my socks for decades. Did most of my own repairs on uniform when in the service and then continued repairing my shirts and pants when I was out on big ranches. I’ve never understood why people don’t fix their own clothes.
I'm a child of the 1950's, and my mother and grandmother (who lived through the Great Depression) taught me to do at least rudimentary hand sewing. I don't think I've ever mended a knitted item, like a sock. But I reinforce loose buttons and sew fallen ones back on, and will repair an opened seam, hem or pocket. I'm "vertically challenged," so I have to shorten my jeans and trousers; it takes me a long time, and I'm a clumsy seamstress, but paying someone else to tailor them would usually cost more than the pants did.
If I'm trying to watch & get tons of ads it tends to turn me off. I like to listen and watch while im doing messy stuff with my hands. That means I DON'T WANT TO have to keep stopping and cleaning my hands off just to skip an ad!
I have memories of my mom, darning my dads socks. She would slide a light bulb into the sock, where the hole was and commence sewing up the hole with needle and thread. I didn't study her method so, I don't recall whether she drew the hole in on its self or weved a cross over, over and under to fill in the hole.
One story I remember from when I was a kid is the folktale Something from Nothing, wherein a child's baby blanket goes through multiple incarnations before finally being lost. Definitely pulling from this tradition of reworking clothing into new and different things.
My gran used to repair silk stockings during WW2. Because silk stockings weren’t available then. My Dad,who was a kid during the war, told me She had this tiny machine that she could mend small runs and holes in the stockings.
When you mentioned the question about "what things were made better back then, than today?", once again, my immediate answer is fabric and thread! They used to last so much longer, be much finer, but stronger. (Just in recent years even, the quality has plummeted noticeably) Some of it is due to agriculture - changes in harvesting etc effects the types of flax used, for instance. Also the modern machines that process the plants and create the threads and fabrics, can't do the same thing as people could and inferior, shorter fibers are used more and more. A lot of it is down to the fact that capitalism keeps pushing for cheaper products at the cost of quality. Mass-production in general makes quality less of a priority in all industries. But, it is important to note that some of these changes are also a trade-off (to a certain extent) between making affordable products and exploiting people. Mostly we have moved the exploitation away from more affluent areas so we can hide it easier from consumers, but when people are paid fairly the products tend to become inaffordable to a lot of people again.
As for the chimney pants... there was a tradition of putting well worn shoes on a shelf in the chimney. Supposedly something so personal distracts any evil spirits trying to enter the house and they will haunt the shoes instead of the people. Those pants are similarly very well worn and may represent the spirit of the owner.
31:22 Not just socks but how the socks were stitched. In WW1, British troops blistered their toes against the stitches that closed their socks. This problem drew the attention of General Kitchener. He enlisted the help of the ladies of England and developed a stitch that did not cause blisters. The stitch became universal. AFAIK it is still the stitch used today.
@@Natalie-hg3gh This tidbit of history I found tucked into BBC Two Inside the Factory Series 6 Episode 4 : Socks. Not available on the Tube nor on BBC's own website. You may find it on BBC Earth on cable or satellite. It was well presented.
The convict from Hound of the Baskervilles gets killed because he was given clothing from Henry Baskerville, and the dog gets the scent. Old clothes were so commonly donated it becomes a plot point
I knit my own socks, and mend when needed (almost all the time), I sew most of my own clothing and that makes me take care of them (Besides my 'body shape' don't fit modern clothing) I'm no expert, but i get better for each thing i make *S*
I put the campfire cooking marathon on the keep me sane while cooking enough Mac and Cheese (not from a box) for two classrooms worth of preschooler. I finished the dishes without losing my mind.
On the 1793 sample of darning reminded me when I researched lining for my undress jacket for 1770's reenacting I came across the inside view of a jacket showing large/ deep seams and all the stitching. The article that accompanied it said that neatening (the term for repairing) was done to show, not hidden as we do today. Also the deep seams was not so they could let it out if person gained weight, but so the seam would not come undone. Pinking had not come to be yet or was not in broad use. Of course zig zag was not done.
I do the darning for my husband and I, as well as for my parents and brother. In fact, I recently darned some holes in the front of my brother's work pants, darned a bunch of socks (husband's, dad's, and brother's), and am currently mending my husband's favorite pair of pajama bottoms. There are some items I will not mend: underwear, worn-out socks, and specific items or repairs that I'm not equipped to do or which require too much effort
I'll also rework clothes occasionally, like the linen blend pants where the inseam kept failing. I unpicked the inseam and turned the pants into a skirt, and I plan to do the same with the second pair too. I have a linen dress that I just sewed the button placket shut and removed the pockets. I saved the pockets in case the dress needs patched in the future. Sometimes I keep the fabric from discarded clothes. I always cut the buttons off to keep them. Sometimes I can't justify keeping all the fabric from a discarded clothing item, but I'll cut off and keep a portion of it for future patching of similar items. Dad often uses discarded clothes as rags.
I had a pair of my brother's jeans in my "donate to Sarah's fabric stash" pile. They were in good shape, probably just didn't fit him, so I had my husband try them on. They fit my husband, I just need to hem them. That's another thing I may or may not do: hem jeans. The jeans have to be mine or my husband's in order for me to put forth that effort.
Still mending! Love tht I have minimal sewing skills and still repair ⭐️ Reduce, reuse, recycle 🥳🥳🥳 Always a pleasure to listen to you in the tavern! I had no idea patches were so important as to be used in court😮😊
In the UK 'paper' money is now made of plastic, so no rags required anymore! And dress historian and RUclipsr Bernadette Banner has written a wonderful book called 'Make, sew and mend', teaching people how to adapt charity shop bought clothing to your size and how to mend your existing clothing. It turns out to be more popular than had been expected, so there definitely is interest in mending clothes now1
I mend my clothes! And I knit, so yes, I do mend socks. I love custom fitted socks and the only way for me to get those is to knit them myself and of course if I have a choice between spending an hour mending socks or 20 hours making new ones, I'll do some mending. [Though making new ones is more fun.] Some people still mend for reasons of economy and some mend as an environmentalist thing. [I do both, textile waste is awful.]
💛...bee's wax for the sewing repair kit?...also, continuing the repair theme...work tools, utensils (including pots and pans, plates), home repairs/remodeling, repurposing/recycling, etc...thanks...
I need clothes to survive the winters! And I repair clothes often, and made my own when I was in jr. and high school. Even repair socks .. lol. Not everyone can buy new or even salvation army clothes.
Same here. I'm amazed at how many are clueless on how to darn socks or sew on a button. Things my mother made sure I knew. She lived through the depression.
@@GypsyBrokenwings Mine, too. But I did not inherent the sewing gene and got pulverized in high school. Plus I was youngest of 3 girls and never had anything new until I was 15 and my grandmother scandalized my mother by buying me a pair of blue jeans. They didn't make them for girls back then and the dress code at school burdened girls with having to wear dresses or skirts so to my mother they were a waste, when would I wear them? I wore them every chance I got ... new, jeans, and I didn't have to make them. Win!
15:04 I might interpret the portrait might be an older man who had had become very successful after having a hard frontier life. Or a gentleman who wanted to project a rugged and tough persona (like Prince Regent George VI having portraits made dressed in military garb despite never having seen battle)
love the fabric and clothing videos!! so very interesting, thank you! so entertaining and yet so very useful!! love the history; enjoy your historical accounts and presentation! appreciate your attention to detail into lives and thought of the day. ❤ so refreshing 🙂
Mending sometimes takes a very long time! You would absolutely remember the darn or patch you'd put on even something fairly generic like a shirt, if you'd spent an hour meticulously putting it on there. "Your honour, that's my shirt, I would know that darn anywhere!" 😄
Two good sources for information on dress are the contemporary 'Microcosm' by W. H. Pyne, and the modern book 'The Dress of the People' by John Styles. The former shows what people were wearing, often in great detail; the latter is something of a magnum opus for those interested in 18th Century dress among the English speaking peoples. 👍
I left the British Army in the 1990s, and my hussif was more or less the same as that shown. I had a leather 'palm' and strong needles and thread too, to repair damage to webbing and bergen.
I love fixing my clothing and reusing fabrics. I buy up things from garage sales and thrift stores that are made from all cotton or linen fabric. I really get excited when I can find a bedsheet or curtain of high quality fabric. I can't stand modern synthetic fabrics.
I have a shirt that I have to wear for work that is really getting threadbare. The company don't supply that kind no more. It's a button up. Now they want you to wear t shirts. I don't like t shirts. I gotta learn to sew.
Look for a uniform supplier and then somebody who can do custom embroidery and duplicate the logo, have like twelve identical shirts made and never tell them
Scrap page. You should have bundles of period smaller scraps for patches. You used to be able to buy leather scraps from Tandy’s that way and many small projects were made around the ranch and repairs made. Random scraps would allow living historians to patch and repair clothing with random patches of period correct material.
I just finished watching, then went on to another RUclips channel: Jackson Crawford. He just posted a video, from Iceland, on Viking Age Dyes. Very informative re: natural dyes. If interested, give it a watch. Same plants used for many centuries, carried to England/ U S.
There was marginally accurate info in this video however there was also TONS of inaccurate and misleading info about how the socioeconomic pressures of the 18th century impacted the way clothing was actually made and worn in this period. You should engage with a credible fashion historian who also knows how to sew in order to fully explain this period in history from a clothing perspective. As an expert sewist I give this video a C-.
I’ve darned my socks for decades. Did most of my own repairs on uniform when in the service and then continued repairing my shirts and pants when I was out on big ranches. I’ve never understood why people don’t fix their own clothes.
Sock darning was a major portion of household mending right into the 20th century. When socks were all made by hand, it didn't make sense to just throw them out when they got a hole; it was far better and more economical to darn the holes instead. And as someone who has hand knitted socks, the time that goes into creating these articles of clothing means it's worthwhile to take the effort to preserve them.
As a child in the 60's I used to repair my dad's socks, using a wooden 'mushroom ' and very fine wool. I've always enjoyed the challenge 😊
Themed marathon request: ANYTHING fabric or clothing or knitting etc related…I watch marathons while sewing ❤
Thank you again for another fun and fascinating video! So appreciated!
I'm watching this as I am altering a coat that I crocheted to make it bigger and longer. I do quite a bit of mending but modern socks aren't worth the effort unless they are wool. I have some handknit socks and they are definitely worth repairing.
I remember my mother and grandmother repairing shirts with worn collars by "turning" the collar. The collar was removed, turned over and reattached. The underside was like new and the worn side hidden. This was as late as the mid 1950's. I think today few people wear their shirts long enough to wear out the collar. Wear may have been increased by hand scrubbing collars perhaps on a washboard.
If I can sew up a hole, or scrub out a stain, then I will. If I can't fix it easily, then it becomes bed time wear, or cleaning/weekend clothes. If it's totally worn out, then it goes into the garbage.
I'm the queen of second hand clothes and hand-me-downs lol
Thank you for the video. You're probably aware, but perhaps not, that just a few decades ago, a lot of dry cleaners offered reweaving services. This was a service for men and women who had accidentally ripped their business suits/dress suits, and obviously, the suits needed to be mended without any obvious repair. The reweavers would use threads that would match the torn threads in a damaged suit fabric and carefully reweave the threads in a way to match the thread pattern of the suit. After the repair, no one would be able to see that the suit fabric had been ripped. Nowadays, I doubt that there are more than 10 people in the whole U.S. who know how to reweave a suit fabric.
Thank you for this! I tell my friends that are new to reenacting the early colonial period that everyone could mend and make their clothes! And yes I did share this with them as well! Thank you again for your all's hard work!
I recently found you. Your show is perfect. Love it.
I know this channel has a more western focus but, Japan has a form of embroidery called Sashiko that emerged during the Edo period(1603-1867). It was a decorative and functional way to reinforce clothing that was mended or pieced together with simple running stitches.
no worries, this knowledge is useful. Sharing this kind of knowledge is so important
You know how expensive good wool hiking socks are?!? I just keep darning the heels and toes, and now I have increasingly colorful immortal socks
Very informative topic. Thank you.
I love the little sewing kit. I've seen people knit socks, I'm trying a crochet sock pattern that I found. We'll see how that goes..
❤
I love wool socks and will repair them because new ones are quite expensive.
I’ve darned my socks for decades. Did most of my own repairs on uniform when in the service and then continued repairing my shirts and pants when I was out on big ranches. I’ve never understood why people don’t fix their own clothes.
I'm a child of the 1950's, and my mother and grandmother (who lived through the Great Depression) taught me to do at least rudimentary hand sewing. I don't think I've ever mended a knitted item, like a sock. But I reinforce loose buttons and sew fallen ones back on, and will repair an opened seam, hem or pocket. I'm "vertically challenged," so I have to shorten my jeans and trousers; it takes me a long time, and I'm a clumsy seamstress, but paying someone else to tailor them would usually cost more than the pants did.
If I'm trying to watch & get tons of ads it tends to turn me off. I like to listen and watch while im doing messy stuff with my hands. That means I DON'T WANT TO have to keep stopping and cleaning my hands off just to skip an ad!
I have memories of my mom, darning my dads socks. She would slide a light bulb into the sock, where the hole was and commence sewing up the hole with needle and thread. I didn't study her method so, I don't recall whether she drew the hole in on its self or weved a cross over, over and under to fill in the hole.
I still have my army sewing kit from the 80s and still use it especially when I need to replace a button .
One story I remember from when I was a kid is the folktale Something from Nothing, wherein a child's baby blanket goes through multiple incarnations before finally being lost. Definitely pulling from this tradition of reworking clothing into new and different things.
You see a lot of 18th century gowns reworked in the 1840s, when full-skirted dresses in strong prints were also in style.
My gran used to repair silk stockings during WW2. Because silk stockings weren’t available then.
My Dad,who was a kid during the war, told me She had this tiny machine that she could mend small runs and holes in the stockings.
Missed it. Good stuff to know.
You and your team do such a wonderful job presenting ll of this information. Thank you all for what you do.
When you mentioned the question about "what things were made better back then, than today?", once again, my immediate answer is fabric and thread!
They used to last so much longer, be much finer, but stronger. (Just in recent years even, the quality has plummeted noticeably)
Some of it is due to agriculture - changes in harvesting etc effects the types of flax used, for instance. Also the modern machines that process the plants and create the threads and fabrics, can't do the same thing as people could and inferior, shorter fibers are used more and more. A lot of it is down to the fact that capitalism keeps pushing for cheaper products at the cost of quality. Mass-production in general makes quality less of a priority in all industries.
But, it is important to note that some of these changes are also a trade-off (to a certain extent) between making affordable products and exploiting people. Mostly we have moved the exploitation away from more affluent areas so we can hide it easier from consumers, but when people are paid fairly the products tend to become inaffordable to a lot of people again.
Most 'cotton' threads aren't even 100% cotton but have a plastic core thread☹️
As for the chimney pants... there was a tradition of putting well worn shoes on a shelf in the chimney. Supposedly something so personal distracts any evil spirits trying to enter the house and they will haunt the shoes instead of the people. Those pants are similarly very well worn and may represent the spirit of the owner.
31:22 Not just socks but how the socks were stitched. In WW1, British troops blistered their toes against the stitches that closed their socks. This problem drew the attention of General Kitchener. He enlisted the help of the ladies of England and developed a stitch that did not cause blisters. The stitch became universal. AFAIK it is still the stitch used today.
Whoa this is so cool! I use Kitchener stitch all the time and didn't know this!
@@Natalie-hg3gh This tidbit of history I found tucked into BBC Two Inside the Factory Series 6 Episode 4 : Socks. Not available on the Tube nor on BBC's own website. You may find it on BBC Earth on cable or satellite. It was well presented.
The convict from Hound of the Baskervilles gets killed because he was given clothing from Henry Baskerville, and the dog gets the scent. Old clothes were so commonly donated it becomes a plot point
I knit my own socks, and mend when needed (almost all the time), I sew most of my own clothing and that makes me take care of them (Besides my 'body shape' don't fit modern clothing) I'm no expert, but i get better for each thing i make *S*
I put the campfire cooking marathon on the keep me sane while cooking enough Mac and Cheese (not from a box) for two classrooms worth of preschooler. I finished the dishes without losing my mind.
On the 1793 sample of darning reminded me when I researched lining for my undress jacket for 1770's reenacting I came across the inside view of a jacket showing large/ deep seams and all the stitching. The article that accompanied it said that neatening (the term for repairing) was done to show, not hidden as we do today. Also the deep seams was not so they could let it out if person gained weight, but so the seam would not come undone. Pinking had not come to be yet or was not in broad use. Of course zig zag was not done.
I do the darning for my husband and I, as well as for my parents and brother. In fact, I recently darned some holes in the front of my brother's work pants, darned a bunch of socks (husband's, dad's, and brother's), and am currently mending my husband's favorite pair of pajama bottoms.
There are some items I will not mend: underwear, worn-out socks, and specific items or repairs that I'm not equipped to do or which require too much effort
I'll also rework clothes occasionally, like the linen blend pants where the inseam kept failing. I unpicked the inseam and turned the pants into a skirt, and I plan to do the same with the second pair too.
I have a linen dress that I just sewed the button placket shut and removed the pockets. I saved the pockets in case the dress needs patched in the future.
Sometimes I keep the fabric from discarded clothes. I always cut the buttons off to keep them. Sometimes I can't justify keeping all the fabric from a discarded clothing item, but I'll cut off and keep a portion of it for future patching of similar items.
Dad often uses discarded clothes as rags.
I had a pair of my brother's jeans in my "donate to Sarah's fabric stash" pile. They were in good shape, probably just didn't fit him, so I had my husband try them on. They fit my husband, I just need to hem them.
That's another thing I may or may not do: hem jeans. The jeans have to be mine or my husband's in order for me to put forth that effort.
Still mending! Love tht I have minimal sewing skills and still repair ⭐️ Reduce, reuse, recycle 🥳🥳🥳 Always a pleasure to listen to you in the tavern! I had no idea patches were so important as to be used in court😮😊
You guys rock
In the UK 'paper' money is now made of plastic, so no rags required anymore! And dress historian and RUclipsr Bernadette Banner has written a wonderful book called 'Make, sew and mend', teaching people how to adapt charity shop bought clothing to your size and how to mend your existing clothing. It turns out to be more popular than had been expected, so there definitely is interest in mending clothes now1
I mend my clothes! And I knit, so yes, I do mend socks. I love custom fitted socks and the only way for me to get those is to knit them myself and of course if I have a choice between spending an hour mending socks or 20 hours making new ones, I'll do some mending. [Though making new ones is more fun.] Some people still mend for reasons of economy and some mend as an environmentalist thing. [I do both, textile waste is awful.]
48:54 "...and a cloth waistcoat..." In this instance, cloth means wool.
I don't feel like I actually own something until i've repaired it once. It's missing a personal touch
Or modified it. That's farming for you.
Missed this one😔!! All good though to find myself in the Nut Meg Tavern late for another great history chat🙂🍻.
Dare I quote the old adage? Waste not, want not.
“A stitch in time saves nine.”
💛...bee's wax for the sewing repair kit?...also, continuing the repair theme...work tools, utensils (including pots and pans, plates), home repairs/remodeling, repurposing/recycling, etc...thanks...
I remember having beeswax in my mother’s sewing kit in the 1960s.
@@Ivehadenuff ...i recall having sewing kits, well into the 70-80's, that included bee's wax...90's, not so much...
Hello from Georgia
I need clothes to survive the winters! And I repair clothes often, and made my own when I was in jr. and high school. Even repair socks .. lol. Not everyone can buy new or even salvation army clothes.
Same here. I'm amazed at how many are clueless on how to darn socks or sew on a button. Things my mother made sure I knew. She lived through the depression.
@@GypsyBrokenwings
Mine, too. But I did not inherent the sewing gene and got pulverized in high school. Plus I was youngest of 3 girls and never had anything new until I was 15 and my grandmother scandalized my mother by buying me a pair of blue jeans. They didn't make them for girls back then and the dress code at school burdened girls with having to wear dresses or skirts so to my mother they were a waste, when would I wear them? I wore them every chance I got ... new, jeans, and I didn't have to make them. Win!
45:47 an 1800th century Jerry springer. The more times change the more they stay the same lol
15:04 I might interpret the portrait might be an older man who had had become very successful after having a hard frontier life. Or a gentleman who wanted to project a rugged and tough persona (like Prince Regent George VI having portraits made dressed in military garb despite never having seen battle)
I loved the cooking marathon, watched and listened to it while doing chores. Really like the clothing repair... I do a lot of that... more ideas.👍
love the fabric and clothing videos!! so very interesting, thank you! so entertaining and yet so very useful!! love the history; enjoy your historical accounts and presentation!
appreciate your attention to detail into lives and thought of the day. ❤ so refreshing 🙂
Thank you for sharing with us today Jon and your Helpers , you all did a great job. Stay safe and keep up the great videos. Fred.
Hello Townsends, thank you for a wonderful live stream.
Mending sometimes takes a very long time! You would absolutely remember the darn or patch you'd put on even something fairly generic like a shirt, if you'd spent an hour meticulously putting it on there. "Your honour, that's my shirt, I would know that darn anywhere!" 😄
Hello Townsends Im watching the replay with my breakfast. Thank you for the livestreams😃👍
Two good sources for information on dress are the contemporary 'Microcosm' by W. H. Pyne, and the modern book 'The Dress of the People' by John Styles. The former shows what people were wearing, often in great detail; the latter is something of a magnum opus for those interested in 18th Century dress among the English speaking peoples. 👍
I left the British Army in the 1990s, and my hussif was more or less the same as that shown. I had a leather 'palm' and strong needles and thread too, to repair damage to webbing and bergen.
Now we're really thought about patches on clothes being used to identify criminals or people in general very interesting thanks
I love fixing my clothing and reusing fabrics. I buy up things from garage sales and thrift stores that are made from all cotton or linen fabric. I really get excited when I can find a bedsheet or curtain of high quality fabric. I can't stand modern synthetic fabrics.
The darning looks like it is on a feed sack.
I have a shirt that I have to wear for work that is really getting threadbare. The company don't supply that kind no more. It's a button up. Now they want you to wear t shirts. I don't like t shirts. I gotta learn to sew.
Look for a uniform supplier and then somebody who can do custom embroidery and duplicate the logo, have like twelve identical shirts made and never tell them
Scrap page. You should have bundles of period smaller scraps for patches. You used to be able to buy leather scraps from Tandy’s that way and many small projects were made around the ranch and repairs made. Random scraps would allow living historians to patch and repair clothing with random patches of period correct material.
I just purchased a newspaper from 1796 I am amazed all the items in the trade market to green coffee to nutmeg ships for sale very cool find.
Hello everyone 😊
I just finished watching, then went on to another RUclips channel: Jackson Crawford. He just posted a video, from Iceland, on Viking Age Dyes. Very informative re: natural dyes. If interested, give it a watch. Same plants used for many centuries, carried to England/ U S.
👍
There was marginally accurate info in this video however there was also TONS of inaccurate and misleading info about how the socioeconomic pressures of the 18th century impacted the way clothing was actually made and worn in this period. You should engage with a credible fashion historian who also knows how to sew in order to fully explain this period in history from a clothing perspective. As an expert sewist I give this video a C-.
I’ve darned my socks for decades. Did most of my own repairs on uniform when in the service and then continued repairing my shirts and pants when I was out on big ranches. I’ve never understood why people don’t fix their own clothes.