On the last day of #MendItMay I’m reviewing what’s on my mend-it pile. I see that I have some re-mends to do and some mending that I know aren’t yet re-mend projects, but will be in time, simply because there are weak spots where you put more wear and tear on your clothes.
Grungy Jacket Make-over
A couple of years ago I decided to mend a jacket that suited visible patching because it is grungy in style. It’s comfortable and I like it. I patched up worn parts on the elbows and cuffs (the places where most of us find wear and tear). I used curtain fabric scraps that I had to hand. I knew the fabrics were prone to fraying, but as I liked them I figured a little needlework in time would fix the problem.
A trimming of frayed fibres and over-stitching with embroidery cotton, and it’ll be ready to wear again. More wear further round the cuffs means additional patches too.
Re-mending and Boro Jeans
A pair of jeans has a large rip in the derrière. My jeans always rip here first so I thought that as this was rather a big mend and they’ll wear here again I might as well consign them to the rags pile. Mending and re-mending, patching and over-patching is a foreign concept in our throw-away society, but there is a backlash, and one sign of that is that Boro mending has been gaining popularity on Pinterest. Boro is a Japanese textile that has been repeatedly patched, often to such an extent that the original textile is hard to discern. See an images I have on my Make Do and Mend Pinterest board.
They might be gardening/DIY jeans but they’ll still be a surviving favourite pair, and if it prays on my mind that I am short of time for mending at the moment (that’s a perennial feeling) then I can always remember that it would probably take more time to search for a new pair of jeans that fit well than it would to make the repair. It looks like, in time, I will have a Boro patched behind.