Mending Matters. Stitch, patch, and repair your favorite denim & more; Abrams, 2018

Join the Slow Fashion movement and make mending your jeans and other garments an artful, joyful, and empowering act of sustainability and renewal, for both you and your favorite clothes.

Mending Matters explores sewing on two levels: First, it includes more than 20 hands-on projects that showcase current trends in visible mending that are edgy, modern, and bold—but draw on traditional stitching. It does all this through just four very simple mending techniques:

Exterior patches

Interior patches

Slow stitches

Darning and weaving

In addition, this full-color book addresses the way mending leads to a more mindful relationship to fashion and to overall well-being. In essays that accompany each how-to chapter, Katrina Rodabaugh explores mending as a metaphor for appreciating our own naturally flawed selves, and she examines the ways in which mending teaches us new skills, self-reliance, and confidence, all gained from making things with our own hands.

Katrina writes in her introduction, “When we spend time patching, stitching, darning, or otherwise fixing torn fabrics, we ultimately deepen our understanding of quality, composition, and craftsmanship.” Let her guide you as you repair your best-loved, most-worn clothing and learn lessons about your clothing and how it is made. It’s a process that will provide unexpected rewards.

So, think twice before throwing away those well-worn jeans or your favorite sweater. Learn new skills that will allow you to keep them with you for years as a reminder of your time together and the experiences you’ve shared.