I've seen a lot of people sharing their visible mending projects on Instagram and we even had a demo about it at quilt guild a few years back, but until recently I haven't given it a try. I mean, we patched our clothes growing up, but believe me, it wasn't pretty. Ha! A few weeks ago, I finally dipped my toes in the water of visible mending and I'm so glad that I did! It makes my frugal heart happy.
These are my younger son's jeans. He wore a hole in the pocket area from carrying his phone around. The pocket lining started peeking out from the hole and it was just awkward. I used a piece of denim from an old pair of jeans and thin polyester black thread for the stitching. I didn't want to use perle cotton because it would be too visible for his tastes. I went with poly thread because I figured it would be stronger and withstand more wear.
One of the knees had a hole in as well. Thankfully I patched it before it split the entire way, side to side. (I have another pair of his jeans in the mending queue where that happened.....)
I was surprised that the mending turned out as well as it did, honestly. It felt GREAT to give new life to my son's favorite jeans. He wears them
a lot since I patched them and he thanked me multiple times for mending them. Isn't that the best?
A few weeks ago, my daughter discovered one of our puppies chewing on a quilt. It was NOT a happy day, let me tell you! The good thing is, of all the quilts that the pup could have chosen to chew on, this is about the best case scenario. (f there is such a thing....)
Last evening, I added a patch of contrasting solid fabric to each side of the quilt and did some big stitch quilting with perle cotton.
The stitching is pretty rustic, especially on the back, but I think that's ok! I'm glad I was able to fix it. Like a friend said, now that's part of this quilt's story. It definitely adds character!
Have you given visible mending a try? If you haven't yet, I would encourage you to do so...but hopefully you won't need to do it on any of your quilts! :)
Love all the patchwork. Adds such character. Yay for the olden days.
ReplyDeletePatch on the quilt reminds me of Sashiko which I love!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on patching the jeans. I've had to patch a quilt that our new puppy chewed on; luckily it was close to the edge and I still had some scraps of the fabric used for the borders & binding. I think what I ended up doing ( it's been a few years - puppy will be 6 next month) was hand stitching a rectangle over the chewed up area including over the binding because I wasn't about to try and redo that. You really have to look at it to see where it's been repaired ( being a print - tiny multicolored dots on black background - helped)
ReplyDeleteThat looks really pretty. I'm now eyeing my partner's well-worn jeans and plotting ;)
ReplyDeleteLove these ideas.
ReplyDeleteI have a quilt that i was working on binding and the dog was chewing on his toy my quilt got a bit chewed. It is a part I had not put binding on the part he chewed. It was put away I recently took it out, finished binding except for that spot. I need to be like you and just patch it and move on I'm too much a perfectionist I guess? Thanks for inspiration my goal this week to fix this quilt!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are so resourceful and clever. The jean patches are subtle and the quilt patch is bold. Look at you go!
ReplyDeleteIt would have been cute to make a label patch and explained why the patch was there and the date the puppy chewed the hole.
ReplyDeleteYour sons jeans look great. I love the patch on the quilt and the idea that it's now part of the quilts story. It's a lovely thought.
ReplyDeleteThis brings fond memories of mending my son's jeans! He always went through the knees way too early - so I always fixed them. I often use the darning stitch on the machine and do it madly until it is closed. I sometimes have used other pieces of denim too. Also, I have repaired dog chewed quilts - those puppies have to be watched - but we love them so we repair. Heirloom and white quilts don't go on my bed for that reason - you never know.
ReplyDeleteI've tried visible mending a couple of times, but your examples are SEW much better than mine turned out to be. Nice work, Amanda!
ReplyDeletemy grandma taught me how to do a minute-and-a-half patch, although it takes me closer to 5 minutes to do one! She always made sure she matched the patch to the pants, she was so surprised when my cousin and I asked for patches that would show up! I loved getting striped denim from my grandpa's overalls for mine :)
ReplyDeleteBoth of these look fabulous, well done !
ReplyDeleteThat looks really pretty. I'm now eyeing my partner's well-worn jeans and plotting ;)
ReplyDeleteสมัคร D2BET
I patched a pair of my deceased brother's jeans so that my sister could wear them... she loved it!
ReplyDeleteI have a quilt chewing grandpuppy and nothing makes him happier than to suck on and chew holes in quilts!
Nice!! What type of fabric did you use for mending the jeans?
ReplyDeleteThanks for showing the mend on a quilt.
ReplyDeleteto bad i can't add a photo here. I mended one son's jeans' knees with watermelon fabric per his request.
ReplyDeleteI love your log cabin quilt a few posts back. I'd like to make a similar one. Can you tell me how many individual log cabin squares it took to reach that size? I'm trying to count from the picture but not very successfully. Thank you
ReplyDeleteI haven’t, but I will now! Thx for the nudge!
ReplyDeleteIt's called boro in Japan. I belong to a Boro FB group. It's a fascinating method with a long and interesting history.
ReplyDeleteOh, WOW Amanda -- GREAT job on both of those mends!! There is a small laundry basket under my longarm machine in my sewing room where mending projects wait for me until I'm ready for them. When I first started quilting, I would discipline myself that I had to empty the mending basket completely before I could start my next fun project. Then that resolve degenerated into "I must mend ONE item of clothing before I can start my next quilt." I confess that now I only check the mending bucket periodically to see whether my kids have grown out of anything in there yet, and that's really the only way anything ever gets out of there. My mending basket is like a death camp for battered clothing. :-( But seriously-- the way you mended those jeans makes them even BETTER than before, and i love the way the patch on that quilt just adds to the design. Inspiring!
ReplyDeleteThat looks really pretty. I'm now eyeing my partner's well-worn jeans and plotting ;)
ReplyDeleteRoyal1688