A practical, thoughtful guide to repairing jeans and other favourite clothes with visible patches, stitches and darning
Repair instead of replace
Katrina Rodabaugh, an artist and crafter in the Hudson Valley of New York, spent years buying no new clothes and repairing the ones she owned instead. Mending Matters grew out of that experiment and her popular workshops. It teaches simple techniques for visible mending, where the repair becomes a decorative feature rather than something hidden, with a special focus on denim.
Who will enjoy it
Beginners and confident sewers who want to repair their clothes beautifully and buy less, especially jeans lovers.
What you will get
A practical and thoughtful guide to visible mending, teaching simple patches, stitches and darning to give favourite jeans and clothes a longer life.
Mending Matters Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Nonfiction · Visible mending · Denim · Slow fashion
Length
224 pages · ≈ 7 h
More about this book
Have a favourite pair of jeans with a hole in the knee? This book will show you how to turn the damage into something you are proud of. Rodabaugh builds her approach on a handful of simple techniques: patches sewn on the outside, patches sewn behind the hole, slow decorative running stitches inspired by traditional methods, and darning and weaving for small holes. None require a sewing machine or advanced skills.
More than twenty projects put these techniques to work on jeans, jackets, shirts and other everyday items, each with clear photographs and step-by-step instructions. Between the how-to chapters, short essays explore why mending matters: the environmental cost of fast fashion, the satisfaction of making things last, and the way caring for objects can change our relationship with them. The tone is calm and encouraging, never preachy.
The book is beautifully photographed, and the finished pieces are inspiring. A small sewing kit and an old pair of jeans are all you need to start. It makes a lovely gift for anyone trying to buy fewer new clothes. About 224 pages in the Abrams hardcover.
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