Mending Life
A Handbook for Repairing Clothes and Hearts (and Patching to Practice Sustainable Fashion and Fix the Clothes You Love)
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
Learn the art of visible mending—a joyful, meditative, and restorative practice—to repair the clothes and belongings you love!
“Not only a compendium of practical knowledge, but a moving meditation on what mending can mean more broadly. If everyone practiced the care, patience, and forgiveness suggested by the authors’ outlook, the world would be a better place.”
—Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing and Saving Time
A beautiful modern sewing and mending guide with vibrant, full-color illustrations throughout, Mending Life encourages us to break free from the fast fashion industry by repairing our clothes rather than discarding them. Along with DIY and how-to illustrations and tutorials, you’ll find heartfelt stories by authors Nina and Sonya Montenegro (creators of the popular @TheFarWoods) that encourage you to change your consumption habits, celebrate a sustainable, intentional lifestyle, demonstrate mending as a powerful act that not only strengthens the object we are repairing, but ourselves as well.
Beginners and seasoned sewers will find:
• Basic Mending Skills: How to thread a needle, how to tie knots, and basic stitches
• Sashiko: A striking Japanese hand-sewing technique for reinforcement and decoration
• Darning: Plain weave, swiss weave, crocheted patch, knitted patch, and needle-felted patch
• Patching: The best three ways to patch holes how-to guide
• Mending Tutorials by Item: Down jackets, shirt cuffs, and linen
• Other Common Repairs: Snags, buttons, belt loops, leggings, pant pockets, and more
• Sewing Beyond Mending: Hemming pants, taking garments in, and adding pockets
Extend the life of your favorite clothes and beloved household items with mending with this timeless and practical guide to cherishing and caring for our belongings.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sonya and Nina Montenegro, twins and cofounders of the Portland, Ore., art studio the Far Woods, debut with a whimsically illustrated and millennial-friendly guide to mending clothing and household linens. They do a fine job of explaining the techniques required to mend a variety of items, from sweaters and socks to jacket cuffs and pant seats. The Montenegros include information on both "Essential" and "Specialty" supplies for sewing, on distinguishing between different fabrics, and on mastering the Japanese technique of "Sashiko Stitching," which is shown to great effect in the authors' charming drawings. The authors suggest approaching mending with a "spirit of play" and incorporating it into daily life a section entitled "Mending on the Go," for instance, portrays mending as "sweet, portable work" instead of a buckle-down, desperate task. They also share reasons, tailored to a younger audience, for taking it up as an environmentally responsible practice, a way of meeting people pursuing the same hobby, and a hobby that's easy on the wallet. If there is any book capable of convincing millennials to pick up a darning needle rather than a smartphone, it will be this alluring primer.
