Mend March 2021 — Victoria Martinez

A month committed to mending. A practice I in general believe in practicing more than I actually practice it… So rather than paving the road to hell further, I thought I'd make sure I did the damn mending for a minute.

Also, I feel quite against negative commitments (any sort of timed “I'll not do this for x time”) as a rule, so a no make March appealed not at all, but am all for an “I will”. Thus. Mending every day in March.

Here's the rundown: I missed three days, but got at least a tiny bit done most days.

Progress went as follows, roughly:

Sewed a button back onto the cuff of my pink thrift shop blouse.

Patched some socks that i couldn’t make myself darn as they’re Darn Tough office weight. I used a baby sock that’s long lost its pair for fabric.

Darned a hole in a blanket that’s been there forever with my fav neon thrift store thread (from Nefelibata of course)

Reattached a mask elastic.

Tried my first Swiss darn. Also did a standard woven darn over a hole on the same sock.

Added bias tape to the bottoms of a favourite blazer’s pockets, instantly bringing it back in rotation at long last.

Spent a good deal of time picking away at reviving my Ginger jeans (previously mended here), using a combination of machine darning, sashiko-adjacent quilting, a DnD patch on the pocket gifted by Kay, and a touch of playing at embroidery. The embroidery is based on this drawing of Meagan’s, and I would like to reinforce around the other side with the other hand eventually. I’m hoping I can invest some time into the Upcycle Stitches sashiko course this summer, since what I’ve already learned from them about this tradition has been an incredible gift to slowly mending. Made a reel on these to give more of the effect over on instagram.

closeup of embroidered hand after Meagan Berlin's work

I rubber glued some rubber boots that are cracking.

I embroidered a little flower mess onto a hanky that had a hole. I use vintage hankies a lot (who needs kleenex, you’re washing things anyway) so this is a handy one to have done.

A very happy making mend: Philipa pants! The pocket facing was coming loose and a spot of stitches had popped, so I fixed those. The facing I used sashiko thread with a sort of random stitch pattern. The aging on these is worth mentioning as well, they’re a year old and those fades just kill me! This denim is in stock at Blackbird last I checked, and seeing that true raw denim look come through is very satisfying to me.

rear view of aged raw denim philipa pants jeans in popcorn denim

philipa pants in popcorn denim in side view - seam visible due to aging

former popped stitches still visible due to jeans aging

Darned a rip on my dad’s jeans.

pants mended further out view to show blending

Worked on Dana’s pants on a warm park day before our last blizzard of the year (knock on wood). Wrapped them up on April 4, again at the park. The main issue was a large tear right over/beside the welt pocket, which as these are fairly technical pants, were so secured that I could not bring myself to unpick. Thus I added two patch pieces behind the welt, and quilted them in two directions (for aesthetic and function), moving the pocket bag as need be. I have just gotten my hands on some silk embroidery thread (thanks Facebook Market!), which I’ve been wanting for these sorts of applications as it should be stronger than cotton.

small hole at gusset covered with satin stitch

I also got started on my camel coat lining replacement project - at least I have removed the old lining and unpicked half of it to make pattern pieces. I think this project will get its own post eventually. Instead of the progress here’s the piece in a ‘fit.

And at the #MendMarch zoom get together on the 31, I started on mending a very old comfy plaid shirt that I can’t wait to have back in my life. All it needs now is a button and I’m just wrapping up the little bit of reweaving I decided to try at the cuff.