#Mending

[stonebutchooze]

I share my sewing wins on here, seems only right I should share my sewing moments of humiliation:

yesterday I accidentally sewed a greggs vegan sausage roll into the lining of a winter coat whilst mending the pockets

[nuttysaladtree]

Mending print by Nina and Sonya Montenegro of The Far Woods. May no longer be available (as of today, 2025-07-01), as I have found only a color variant on their Etsy (without the bobbin shaded in).

[yllene]

Working on some mending today.

[suprsaturatd]

I and some other sewists and fiber artists were featured in Teen Vogue recently!! It’s really wild seeing how my tiny little punk sewing circle has been reaching people around my city :) You can read the article here!!! I wanted to talk a bit more about my reasoning for doing this stitch ‘n’ bitch event on tumblr since i get a lot of inspiration here. :3

I’ve been hosting a monthly Stitch ‘n’ Bitch crafting circle since August of 2024. I haven’t quite hit a year yet, but it has been a blast so far!! Every month I bring sewing supplies (scrap cloth, needles, thread, embroidery floss, scissors, pins, buttons, other shit i can get my hands on), zines, and my own DIY mending know-how and attitude to help people mend their clothes. We set up in a local DIY punk record shop in Denver, CO, with help and promotion from Aliyah Wallace and her local art club meetup group, Artists in Sync.

I’ve been on tumblr for fandom stuff for a minute, but it’s really only been since 2021 that I got into visible mending and solarpunk. I’ve been really inspired by the solarpunk and visible mending communities on tumblr. In particular, I’ve gotten a lot out of following @wastelesscrafts , @solarpunkactionweek , @solarpunkani , @mossyvida , @fennopunk , @obsob @mildmayfoxe @claypigeonpottery @plantyhamchuk @theenbyroiderer and probably a whole bunch of other people i’ve been quietly following but not saying anything to for four years. Not everyone listed here may consider themselves ‘solarpunk’ per se, but they’re people who’ve inspired my art and my desire to share a better world with my community.

I get to make and sell cool textile art, but what I really love is being able to show people how to do stuff like this. All of these embroidery stitches are fairly simple (if repetitive), most of these were made with hand-sewing, and all of it comes from thrifted materials. It also looks pretty cool!!! I like wearing clothing that I made just for me, and I know it’s something that would make other people feel great about their clothes and their body.

If your clothes are falling apart, it is not your fault a million times over - the push for more clothing, more styles, more trends, at faster rates, all for more and more of a profit has destroyed the quality of our garments. Fabrics are made of plastic and made poorly to boot. The people working in sweatshop clothing factories are being forced to turn out products faster and faster, with no real increase in pay, benefits, or ability to add the kinds of finishings that make clothes last longer. You’re overworked and underpaid, and it’s easier to buy new clothing than it is to try to eke out time in your jam-packed day to fix the holes in your shirt. It’s easier to keep you trapped in that shitty job if you don’t know your neighbors, if you are constantly trying to hold your life together under solely your own power (or maybe yours and that of a partner, if you’re lucky). It’s easier to miss the effects of the clothes you wear and discard because they are quietly shuffled away from you.

I started to learn how to embroider because embroidery floss is cheap, frequently boldly colored, easier for my sweet sweet nearsighted eyes to see, and it produces the kind of free-form, messy art I love. I was hooked into visible mending VERY soon after beginning my embroidery journey because hey! I can put art on my clothes! Why would I not want more of that? It was an act of caring for myself and my loved ones - I want that sweater you love to be with you longer, I want to put little flowers and suns and butterflies on your clothes for you, I want those jeans that makes your ass look awesome to last for another decade. I don’t want to buy new underwear. I CANNOT AFFORD TO BUY NEW UNDERWEAR.

But my clothes are mine: I have little pieces of evidence of my love for myself and my clothes on more and more of my wardrobe. The pre-distressed overall shorts I found now have autumnally-colored vines chasing up and down the patches I added. The boxer briefs I got when I got rid of all my old girl clothes and replaced them with something that made me feel at home in my body are still with me, with colorful little darns overlapping. The first band shirt I ever got and outgrew a long time ago is salvaged and is now paired with another shirt with another piece of art I love. I pay attention to the clothes of my friends and my lovers and I can give them something that will be with them for as long as they keep their clothes - for longer, even, if they are passed on.

And I don’t need to hoard that. It would be antithetical. For every person I teach a ladder stitch, that’s so many shirts and pants and skirts and jackets that will last just a bit longer. For every mending kit I hand out, someone will keep their favorite shoes for another year. It saves money, it keeps trash out of landfills, it takes back power from the ghouls who would have us licking their feet for table scraps. But most of all, repairing something you love makes it even more yours. To be loved is to be changed. To be cared for is to leave your mark and wear others’, forever.

[cuties-in-codices]

medieval parchment repairs

in a psalter, south-western germany, late 12th/early 13th c.

source: Hermetschwil, Benediktinerinnenkloster, Cod. membr. 37, fol. 19r, 53r, and 110r

[littlebasementcreature]

Quick update on this project, it’s not done but I wanna show it off anyways:

(Yes there’s ladybugs on the pocket, there’s also ladybugs on the pant leg with the red sashiko pattern. I couldn’t bring myself to remove them)

I also reinforced the side seam because it was literally coming apart, so that’s the red you see on the side there. I’m yet to do diagonal lines to finish the pattern that I want. Eventually it’s supposed to look like this:

[tokjos]

One of the privileges of knowing how to sew and mend is seeing something starting to tear or break and saying "oh no you don't! I still have use for you."

[kajtekmakesthings]

Really pleased with this quick wee mend on one of my favorite shirts, which managed to shred itself the same way on both forearms.

Fabric is some amazing scrap corduroy I picked up ages ago.

I used lightweight fusible webbing to stick it in place because it's in such a fussy spot; unpicked the original binding and then re-sewed it over the patch; added a few lines of machine stitching in line with the tension that pulled it apart the first time (which will hopefully prevent new tears); and then whip-stitched around the remaining edge by hand.

[hidefdoritos]

My infamous solarpunk shorts have always had a defect: The belt loops were too small for my belt.

Yesterday I unpicked all five belt loops and cut out seven new ones. I then realized the fabric wasn't very stable, even on the straight grain, so I backed them with my landlady's fusible interfacing. Then I used my machine's diamond stitch to cover the raw edge.

And here's the final product! Cheers to a more wearable, usable garment.

[milkweedman]

Almost done with this bag, which is the 3rd and final bag I got roped into making for a coworker. And then I do need to go fix the handles on the second one I've made, but i will be done after that !

And since I dont want to figure out scary shaping/math details for my sweater right now, I brought some stuff to keep mending my blue linen jacket. Its got SO many little thin spots that I dont feel good about leaving.

Its coming along slowly. I really love this jacket...I'll have to decorate it once im done with the mending.

Since its blue, I've been thinking some kind of wave pattern would be really nice. Or clouds. I have some handspun white cotton thread that I think would work very well in that application. I'll have to think about it.

[peilinsirpale]

Just finished mending these socks for one of my mom's friends!

Mended and reinforced with traditional darning, they'll hopefully last for a good while before further mending is required. It was fun doing my best to match the colour for each stripe, and I ended up using some yarn provided by her, some from my own stash that I could use directly, some that I had to split into thinner sections (4-ply into 2-ply), and some that I pulled out of the weft of a wool fabric scrap in my stash.

[heavymead0w]

Forever finding new holes in my mom's favorite sweater

[pumpkinpaix]

kinda wish I had taken a photo of these before, but I’ve been doing some visible mending on my clothes recently :) the fashionable distressing had turned into slightly less fashionable gaping holes lol

thought it would be fun to try and continue the tree print onto the pants themselves to make it look like they were growing out—I’m not terribly good at embroidery bc I don’t do it very often but I think it turned out well!! yay :) I left some of the frayed edges in bc I liked the look, and I’m pretty happy with that decision \o/

[hey-howsitgoin]

So I've had this joke in my head for a couple months (at least), but hadn't found the right spot to make it. Today it is complete.

A hole in my jeans?

Hmm? What's this?

A Patchypus?

REPAIRRY THE PATCHYPUS!!!?!!!

[ilookattextile]