The hand stitches are beautiful.
I began repairing out of necessity: I needed to fix the holes in my pants so I could keep following my toddler through Oakland’s streets and parks, she says. When my baby slept nearby, I could sit on the sofa with a cup of tea and hand stitch in utter solitude. Hand stitching reminded me of knitting in that it was portable, forgiving, simple to take up and put down, and quiet. It is also a throwback to a time when sewing machines were not readily accessible or handy.
“I might analyze my possibilities for producing a patch or a line of running stitches via the lens of fundamental design components such as line, form, space, texture, and color. A little thought and restraint—using just white thread and blue denim patches—was enough to keep me interested in the creative side of repair while conversing with the garment’s original designer via color, fabric, and feel. Sometimes I wanted to make a big knee patch, while other times the clothing needed a subtle, almost unnoticeable repair. We may come to accept this process as a natural extension of the process of producing, purchasing, and wearing clothes. Slow Design and Slow Living ideals are incorporated into my mending and the tasks in this book.
Mendfulness is about the combination of awareness and mending rather than perfection or throwaway clothing. Including personal features adds value and emotional connection while making the garment really one-of-a-kind. I even had a couple of my poems printed on fabric so I could tuck them into the pockets of my homemade outfits at one time. (And there’s something delicious about having a hidden poem in your pocket.).
Slow fashion and slow design seek to make informed decisions that consider people and the environment through fibers and materials, craftsmanship and process, labor and ethics, and the simple principle that if we slow down, we may have a better chance of creating, purchasing, or mending what we truly love. In my classes, I often remark, “If you can tie your shoes, I can teach you to fix them.” Learning to operate a computer is much more difficult than learning fundamental stitches with needle and thread.
STRAIGHT STITCHING
The straight stitch is a single stitch that rises from behind the cloth and inserts itself back beneath it, approximately 14 inches (6 mm) away. This is an excellent stitch for repairing many layers of heavy fabric, such as denim, or for cleaning up the ends of your mending lines. To construct a row of horizontal, vertical, or diagonal stitches, stitch in either direction.
STITCHING WHILE RUNNING
The Sashiko stitch is a collection of straight stitches, but instead of creating one stitch each time the needle is inserted, you may create three to five stitches at a time. The running stitch is ideal for mending knees, elbows, and other difficult-to-reach areas of clothing. It is also useful for covering a bigger area of cloth, such as a blanket or the back of a garment.
WHIPSTITCH
Whipstitches are very handy when you need to stitch a fabric edge, such as a ripped knee, or tack down the margins of a hole on an interior repair. The whipstitch produces a single stitch each time the needle is inserted. If requested, experienced stitchers, quilters, embroiderers, and textile artists may use more complicated stitches on these designs.
A ruler and fabric pencil may be used to produce straight lines for your stitches, to fasten the borders of patches, or to construct a grid and line up the vertical and horizontal lines. When I’m repairing, I don’t usually use chalk lines for individual stitches; instead, I draw a horizontal line and then improvise my stitch length as I go. These personal touches give a naturally aged garment intimacy, attractiveness, and even elegance.
Seasonal Clothes Color
Coloring our clothing with the plants that surround us provides us with a new language for expressing the tale of our time and location. On a frigid day, mending a worn-through knee on my son’s trousers using indigo-dyed fabric, I’m reminded of the cool stream of water and little, stained-blue hands that helped me stir and swish. We may note the goldenrod blanketed everything in sight this year or the excellent health of the towering oaks that dropped basketsful of tannin-rich acorns when we dye our wool, cotton, and linen with plants.
