#clothing repair

[reality-detective]

Life Hack: Clothing Repair 🤔

[i-like-rocks22]

Tried my hand at some visible mending this weekend. Behold my terrible and adorable daisys! I love them!

[cozypunkprints]

Finally got around to finishing this visible mending project from this fall.

[spidercityy]

i fixed my first wrist cruff that was literally falling apart because i refuse to throw it away 😇

i just dont know if i should put the studs back on or not 😭😭😭

heres how it was before

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Visible Mending

My grandmother sews up the elbows of my shirt.

Patched and patterned, in garish colours

Outlandishly clear. A kind of cloth kintsugi, saying

This is not that which was here before.

Ostentatiously altered, openly repaired,

A virtue signal, I accept, but will not apologise for.

I walk the streets with solarpunk written on my arms.

Andrew sews up the flaps of my skin.

Carefully sutured, his steady hands

Bear a duty of care. These marks will scar and harden,

Swallow stitches and leave stretch-pleats.

Even when the scabs have fallen,

I stand with a form all fixed and modified,

A body I stayed with, laboured over,

Though I could have chosen to throw it out.

I stand before the mirror with trans written on my chest.

Lined and changed, my biohacked body

And rescued clothes speak prophecy to a future

As yet unnamed. I carry them both as a promise.

One on the other, endlessly whispering,

Visibly mended and always the proof

That redemption is worth the price.

I rub oil into my scars and ask

My grandmother to teach me how to sew.

[improbable-implosions]

Another multi-parter for both thighs across the main seam of a pair of jeans! This is a VERY common canvas for sashiko 'round this household, seeing as both Razz and I have pretty thorough thighs. Luckily, having learned my lesson (somewhat) from the giant patches in the same area I did previously, I split this into two designs, even if the patch fabric itself was one piece. Both designs are from wrenbirdart's stick and stitch collections, barring that little section on the first one I pencilled myself, as the main pattern was slightly too small.

First up we've got this genuinely delightful set of little asterisks, formed out of vertical, horizontal, and two diagonal sets of stitches. The first set of stitches immediately make clear that I really should be more careful about my math when I'm trying to duplicate the wrenbirdarts patterns onto my own dissolvable backing. Sure, that set all the way on the right is off by increasing increments of a quarter inch with each set, but I actually don't mind that look too badly in the end. The general look of all the eight-pointed overlapping crosses works super well, and I may take some inspiration from the mildly-fumbled pattern on that hand-pencilled section to make an alternating pattern of standard crosses and the asterisks, in the future.

Secondly, there's this pine forest design! I really had a love hate relationship with this one, as the pattern itself is SUPER pretty, I mean, look at that final picture! It's so beautiful! The major downside, though, is that it doesn't lend a lot of opportunities to load up straight stitches in a row. As you can kinda see in the progress shots, you do that central "coordinate grid" of a given pine top, then go quarter by quarter, filling in the other stitches, one by one, individually. Which, to me, is SUPER boring, I much prefer to load up a bunch of straight stitches in a row, then pull them all through, smoothing the fabric afterwards. So, partially because I wanted to get it done and over with as fast as possible, and partially because my jean shorts were in DIRE need of fast repairs before I could wear them in the (then incoming) summer heat, I somewhat sped my way through the pattern, in hopes that I can later come back to this pattern, and develop a more-loadable version that still keeps the pine-like beauty of the finished piece here.

[charlisabeth]

The elbow on this cardigan wore out, so I decided to fix it with some flowers 🌸

[offmyfuxkingmind]

I cast the spell: hole be gone

[calendae-creations]

I finally got around to mending this pair of pants! I know the other side is going to need reinforcement before too long as well, but they're currently wearable, which is what matters

I didn't draw out a grid or anything for the sashiko stitching. I definitely was going for fast over tidy! Still, I like how it looks.

[strawberrysalamanders]

Crochet Patching

from Mending Life: a Handbook for Repairing Clothes and Hearts by Nina and Sonya Montenegro

[reality-detective]

Lifehacks / Useful Tips 🤔

[cozypunkprints]

A collection of most of the hand-darned mending I’ve done in the past year or so.

[queer-ecopunk]

Hurried patch on the collar of a thrifted shirt. I wanted to wear it and not have the hole get worse, but I might go back and match the thread to the pattern.

[janerhoadesart]

Maybe it’s not very glamorous, but I love doing little mends like this. This is one of my husband’s favorite sweaters, but I noticed a little tear the other day.

Darning this took about 15 minutes. Now the sweater will last even longer!

Inside of the sweater is on the left, outside is on the right.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Some visible mending I got done on old clothes at the repair cafe this weekend!

[ravelingbolero]

Improved a friend’s coat by adding belt loops. I’m glad I found such a good color match on the fabric!