Mending & Making
Have we as a generation lost the skill of mending and making our own clothes? This post explores just that, as well as giving you a handy little tutorial to help you sew up any holes you might have in your clothes...
Spending time caring for your clothes I believe can help you form a bond to them, as discussed in my getting intimate with your clothes article, which can result in you being more likely to cherish them and stop buying excessive amounts of clothing. Mending or making clothes is just another step in this process. I will admit I have lost my skill with knitting, but I can confidently sew a button on! Luckily, I have a green jumper with a hole in the armpit and thought this is a perfect opportunity to take it up to my Grandma and ask her to mend it for me so I can share her knowledge. Her step-by-step guide to mending a hole in your clothes will be at the bottom of this post. This is just a rough guide, and I am sure that there are thousands of tutorials on YouTube that you can take a look at. But don’t be scared, practice makes perfect and we all have to start somewhere!
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Not only will making or mending your clothes help you appreciate them more, it can also be such a rewarding hobby. You get a finished product out of it at the end, and it’s something that doesn’t require spending time on a screen. It might even help your cognitive function, with lots of research happening now centring around how craft can help your mental health. It could be a solitary hobby or could be something your pursue with your friends. Just think how cute a girl’s night would be with you all sewing, knitting, or crocheting together. Get some pizza, good music, and maybe some wine, and that sounds like a great night in to me.
Once you’ve learned some basics, or you’ve already kickstarted your seamstress journey, you can get more creative with it. Add some fun patches to your t-shirts or denim jeans, crop a t-shirt and use the bit you’ve cut off to make a scrunchie. Or if you fancy yourself as an artist, painting on to denim is another option to upcycle a tired looking jacket. The possibilities are endless, and being invested in your clothes will hopefully change your perception of them, creating a stronger bond to them. By mending them or spending time on them they can then feel more special to you. They become one of a kind and unique to you, ultimately making them irreplaceable.
If you do mend any of your own clothes, we’d love to see your beautiful creations! Tag our Instagram @cherish_platform or use the hashtag #cherishplatform.
HOW TO MEND A HOLE:
(A ROUGH GUIDE)
1. Thread your needle with a matching colour to the garment and secure the other end with a small knot.
2. Bearing in mind the size of the hole, push the needle through one side of the hole coming from the back / inside, and push through a small stitch in fabric in the front at the bottom. Now pull your thread all the way through and up.
3. Bring the needle back down and push through the fabric on the top side of the hole. This is your first stitch.
4. Now do this again just slightly further to the side of the last stitch. Go up and down until the hole is fully covered.
5. Turn the fabric 90 degrees and continue in the same way, but this time weave the thread in and out of the stitches you made closely whilst keeping it flat.
6. Secure the thread neatly on reverse with a knot by sliding your needle under one of your stitches to create a loop, and thread the needle through it and pull tight. Snip off excess thread.
BEFORE
AFTER
