Book Review: "Visible Mending, Artful Stitchery to Repair and Refresh Your Favorite Things"

More on mending! Visible Mending, Artful Stitchery to Repair and Refresh Your Favorite Things , by Jenny Wilding Cardon, is a great resource for anyone who wants to mend their own clothes, thrift store finds, and stained or torn children’s clothes.

This is a fun book which covers 5 different types of mending—Japanese Boro menidng which uses sashiko type stitching, hand embroidery, patches, darning and using a sewing machine to mend.

Each of the techniques has a list of supplies that will be needed and clear, tutorial-type photo illustrations of each step in the repair.

I love the author’s story about a repair on her son’s T-shirt (see above, the bright teal grid of squares in upper right corner). He loved it so much he wanted to wear it to school the next day. He couldn’t because it was needed as an illustration for this book, but she sent him off to look in his drawers to find another shirt in need of repair! If that’s not a vote of confidence, I don’t know what is!

Jenny has some really fun repairs: inset circles, holes left in place but turned into features with embroidery stitches that accent while stabilizing the hole, and woven darned repairs.

She doesn’t just have repairs for clothes. There is one on a the rubber of a pair of beloved sneakers and other on an American flag (with information about what repairs can and can not be done on a flag).

And finally, for folks who don’t want to do hand repairs, there a collection of machine mends with instruction s on how to do them.

This is a very useful book and I’m happy to own it because many of the techniques resonate with techniques used in quilting. It is also a book that will be great for a busy parent or a thrifter who is recycling and accenting old clothes.

Book Review: "Make and Mend" by Jessica Marquez

Continuing the mending theme, I want to share two books I recently acquired. There are other books on mending but I’ve only purchased two. Today I’ll review a book about sashiko stitching and next week on mending book with a wider focus.

Jessica Marquez’s book, Make and Mend, covers the art of Japanese sashiko stitching. Sashiko is a straight running stitch that is usually sewn in geometric patterns. The first part of the book discusses the technique, tools and thread and then has a variety of new projects that can be made. The projects run from a simple sachet to a really great market tote bag (see the back cover below for a glimpse of the tote).

The second part of the book is about mending. Techniques include patching jeans, darning using a pattern of stitches, applique and three ways to change a hem.

Finally, at the end of the book, there is a great collection of 20 sashiko pattern samplers with instructions on how to stitch the patterns.

This is a beautiful book. It’s the sort of book that makes book lovers sigh with contentment. Just holding it makes me happy!

If you want to learn sashiko stitching, or if you are a perfectionist and want your mending to be truly beautiful as well as functional, this this the book you should get!

As much as I love this book, I’m not a perfectionist. Next week I’ll review a book that is closer to my style—have fun, do it well, and get it done!

Mending Old Clothes with a Personal Touch: A Tutorial

The hole

The patch

Mending. It was something my mother did and a skill she taught me. But as the 1900s came to an end, clothing became “disposable” and folks stopped mending and started throwing worn or torn clothing away.

The pendulum as swung back with the Millennials who love to thrift! Japanese mending methods are being used to restore and accent old clothes. There are at least 3 books on mending that have been recently published. Imagine that! I’m intrigued. I’ve ordered two of them (the third, just published in the fall of 2018 is out of print but still available as an e-book).

But I wanted to try a patch before I read what others are doing. So here’s a short tutorial for the patch I made for this pair of much loved ( and no longer available) flannel-lined Chino pants. Photos of the steps are shown below the instructions.

Supplies:

• Item to be mended

• Some fabric, preferably the same fiber content as the item to be mended

• #8 Perle Cotton thread

• Embroidery thread if you wish to embellish the patch

• Sharp large eye needle

• Sewing pins and an iron

Instructions:

1. Measure the hole you want to mend. Add at least 1/2 inch on all sides to allow for a 1/4 inch seam and a bit of extra fabric to be sure the hole is really covered.

2. Cut out the patch, then turn under the edges 1/4 inch on all four sides and iron.

3. Pin the patch over the hole

4. Thread the needle and knot the end of the thread. Run the needle through the fabric from the wrong side to start sewing. Stitch around the four sides of the patch using a simple in-and-out running stitch.

5. Your patch is now attached. You could stop here. Or you may keep sewing to make a patch that is stronger and more decorative. I chose to keep sewing, and decided to sew in parallel lines. I can make straight even stitches (I'm a quilter!) but I had problems with the double thick seams in the pant leg. The stitching was OK, but I didn’t love it. So I added the light blue embroidered flower which improved it.

I’m very happy with my newly mended pants! The patch is fun and utilitarian,. I know it’s not a work of beauty which is totally fine for a pair of knock-around-in old pants.

Back in action!

I’m looking forward to seeing the two books I ordered this week. I know from online previews that they do show how to do some truly beautiful mending. I can’t wait!