Currently Needle Felting

Introduction:

Visible mending is a decorative way to fix up an item. Instead of trying to make your mend as invisible as possible, the idea is to make it part of the garment's design.

Visual mending is not a single technique: it's more of a mindset. If you've got an item you love, it deserves to be mended, and if you're going to put that love into stitches, why not show them off?

That being said, there are some specific techniques that are popular with visible menders. Let's take a look!

Sashiko:

Sashiko is a type of traditional Japanese embroidery that is used to both decorate and reinforce fabric. In visible mending, sashiko is often used to cover up holes with patches or to reinforce thinning fabric. This technique uses a variation on the running stitch.

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Some resources on sashiko:

SashiCo on YouTube: sashiko livestreams and information on the cultural aspect of sashiko.

Written tutorial by Upcycle Stitches.

Free sashiko templates by TheSpruceCrafts.

Fixing jeans with sashiko by Soluna Collective.

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Embroidery:

Regular embroidery is also a popular technique to accentuate your mends. Check out my embroidery 101 post to learn how to get started. You can embroider patches, or use embroidery to hide or accentuate any stitches you've made to fix holes. Embroidery's also a great way to cover up stains.

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Patches:

There are many ways to add patches to a garment. My tutorial on patches is a good place to start if you want to make custom-shaped patches to sew on top of your fabric. You can also sew your patch on the inside of your garment and have it peek out from beneath the hole you're trying to fix. Fun ideas for this are lace or superheroes.

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Darning:

Darning is a technique used to repair holes in fabric by using running stitches to weave extra fabric over the hole as to fill it up again. While traditionally darning is done in an invisible way by using the same colour of thread as your fabric, you can also use contrasting colours to accentuate your fix. Check out this written tutorial on darning by TheSpruceCrafts.

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Conclusion:

Visible mending is a creative way to fix up your clothes and give them some personality at the same time.

You should be proud of the fact that you took the time and learned the necessary skills needed to mend your clothes! Show off what you did!

A fun side effect of wearing these obvious mends is that people will notice them. They'll remember your fixes the next time they're faced with a hole in their wardrobe, and it will make them more likely to try it for themselves.

No one has ever looked at one of my cross stitch or embroidery pieces and asked if they can have it, or if I’ll make them one just like that for free.

But knitting. Knitting is different. It’s seen as being so simple and, presumably, worthless that people feel free to pass unsolicited comment on your work as well as ask if they can have one. You name a price for doing so and they look at you like you should be able to magic free, decent quality, wool out of your arse so how very dare you suggest charging them for a scarf, hat, sweater, whatever (at this point you don’t bother mentioning that labour would have cost extra)

The one thing that knitting and stitching do have in common is the amount of people who will say: “Oh, I could never do that. It looks so complicated.”

.

BUT this isn’t just my experience of it.

My sister used to earn money making clothes when she was between ‘proper’ jobs.  She never had any issues with payment or pricing with a sewn garment.  She’d give them a price, explain how much the various fabrics, notions and labour cost and that was it. She only ever had problems with people wanting knitted items. They’d haggle over the cost, whine about how long it it would take her to make (knitting time was always given in advance), complain about the quality of the cheap ass yarn they’d chosen, etc, etc.

As time passed she just gave up offering to knit items for money.

Why has knitting become such a devalued skill for anyone who isn’t a big name knitwear designer?

.

Yes, her funeral. My grandmother, who taught me to knit, was in awe of this shawl. It is beaded lace and took me hours upon hours to complete. That is a queen sized bed it was being blocked on. If I were to add up the hours and calculate federal minimum wage (which is much less than the minimum wage here in MA), people just might choke

One of my aunts remarked how lovely it was, and asked if I would ever consider making them for sale

Knowing she was moderately well-off, not rich but comfortably middle / upper-middlr class, I decided to ask what she would pay for it

Keep in mind, hand knit beaded lace, covers a queen sized bed, probably 48-60 hours of work (maybe more; i never counted), took me months and months because it was done in my spare time

Guess what she suggested

Go on, guess

Got that number?

Ok, good

She suggested the grand and exorbitant price ooooofffffff……

$50.00

My roommates boyfriend constantly does this like he saw me meal prepping (where I cook enough food for every meal of the day for the whole week) and then he was like “If I get the food can you do it for me?” like, this takes 6 hours to do minimum you have to pay me. Then when I told him he would have to pay me he was like “wait so I have to pay you AND get the food?” Like, that’s literally how professional meal prepping works. I’m not working for you for 6 hours at something that is not going to benefit me in any way shape or form. 

Then he saw me making myself a winter coat (still working on it) he was like “can you make me a winter coat?” and I was like ‘no’ because I have very limited time and his status in my life is ‘roommate’s boyfriend’ and I’m not giving you crafted things I made. Then he was like “but I’ll get the materials and I started laughing because this was such a ridiculous thing to even ASK and then he seemed to think that I was about to agree and commit myself to making a WINTER COAT for him and was like “see? now bc it’s me going to the store and getting it [the fabric] it’s good now” or something like buddy, going to the store is the relaxing part. you get to look at the pretty fabrics and touch them and feel them and match them with the thread, the buttons, other fabric, pick out a clothing pattern maybe, it’s the start of the project and it’s fun! You going to the store to pick up the material, probably not enough of it, getting the wrong material since you don’t know what you’re doing or looking for, probably not getting the rest of the material (buttons, batting for insulation, sewing thread), probably not getting material for lining and probably not getting zippers and whatever else the clothing pattern specifies is needed and what quantity of it because you don’t know how to read a clothing pattern IS NOT A GOOD STAND IN FOR PAYMENT FOR A CUSTOM WINTER COAT MADE TO FIT YOU EXACTLY AND WITH THE MATERIAL YOU PICKED. It’s insulting that you expect me to make you a coat with no payment. Then I was like (jokingly, since I will not be doing it) ‘you have to pay me’ and then he was like ‘how much’ and I said ‘I need to research what is a fair price’ 

THEN HE LITERALLY TOLD ME “no!! don’t google it! you’ll get some crazy number!” 

YOU WANT A CUSTOM WINTER COAT MADE WITH FABRIC YOU CAN PICK OUT AND YOU WANT IT HANDMADE, NO SHIT IT’S GOING TO BE A ‘CRAZY NUMBER’ BECAUSE IT ISN’T A MASS PRODUCED FAST FASHION PRODUCT, IT’S CUSTOM. 

long story short: stop asking us to randomly make you things for free, it’s insulting. be appreciative AND USE/WEAR THE THINGS WE DO MAKE YOU AS GIFTS, if you want us to make you something say ‘I WILL pay you’ and then either be happy with the price we give you for the item, or tell us ‘I’m really sorry but that’s not in the budget for me right now’ and move on instead of trying to get us to debase ourselves and devalue our work. if you want it for ‘free’ then learn how to make it yourself. 

Comfy Skull

i must make…

b e a d l i z a r d

B…

AND with a little practice, you can even make them 3D shaped (especially with the smaller beads and wire, though you can make them with the bigger beads and string, to an extent) 

Made the orange one last night and doesn’t have a face yet. Sigh…

And now during the day there’s construction works going on and it’s ratatatatata clankclank dadadadadada kertunkclunk dudut-dudududududududuCLANK

**bangs head on table** help.

Think I’ll only be able to crochet at night for awhile…

ALSO! I was recently enlightened about crochet hooks..with LIGHT!

This is a great tutorial! 💕😉👏