The irony that I’ve literally written the book on mending is not lost on me. My mending pile is a mile high. Most of the time I try and stay on top of it, but times like this summer happen and it really gets away from me!
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A big part of the wardrobe redress project is to fix up the clothes I love, so I don’t feel obligated to wear the clothing I don’t love because they are in better condition. This week I tackled my mending basket and fixed up three of my favorite items.
I had preemptively patched my jeans because I knew the one side was wearing thin. I did not correctly anticipate how the fabric would fail. Before I knew it, I was indecent again. Oh crap. Of course I fixed that up quickly with a bit of whip stitching, no worries there. I also trimmed up the loose fibers and re-enforced the edges around the hole with even more stitching.
I’ve had the buttons for this sweater for months and have sat down to stitch them on so many occasions. I would make a cup of tea, turn on a movie, set out my supplies, and…fall asleep. Ha! This weekend I finally succeeded, check out this awesome 70′s sweater jacket that’s now all ready to go for the winter (or chilly summer nights). It’s been missing it’s buttons for over 4 years!
Too bad in the whole mess of mending, I didn’t come up with this flash of brilliance until it was too late:
When you pick up replacement buttons for a garment, pin them to the garment. These poor little guys have been stolen by the ferrets, lost in my bag, lost in the couch, lost in the car, and now I can’t find them at all. I just had this set left (2 out of the four buttons needed) after all the loosing a finding, so I pinned it to the sweater and got them stitched on. Next time, I’ll pin them as soon as I place them with my mending. If you are using loose buttons, you could put them on a safety pin.
I’ve been ignoring the many many tears in my favorite t-shirt, well, no more! Check out these fixed up holes:
All of them:
Holy crap, that is a torn up shirt. I still totally love it! And thanks to an evening of mending, I can continue loving it to shreds.
Have you done any mending lately? What’s been sitting in your pile the longest?
Happy stitching!
Kristin Roach
It’s always so funny how long things sit in the mending pile before I get to them. Then once I do, I think “Why in the world did I not just get that done!?” Most of the time, mending is a quick and easy and extends the life of clothing by years.
I love handwork and mending is one of the best instant gratification projects. Just a few minutes of work and you have a finished product, ready to be used!
So jeans that sat in the pile for, oh, about 4 months:
{yep, this is my mending box where I keep all my “to mend” clothing, isn’t it great? I bought it from a local artist and then redid the inside with vintage fabric.}
Fixed in just 10 minutes! I even reinforced an area that was wearing thin too.
My pants are modest again, yes!
I have had yet to find a good online source for mending instructions. Do you know of any? What do you mend the most? What’s your biggest mending question? What ends up sitting in your “to mend” pile the longest?
Get the mini zine Mending on the Go, in the Craft Leftovers Shop.
And if you want a mending kit idea, check out the Mending on the Go kit pattern here. (I love this little guy. It’s always in my bag)
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