Mending Life
A Handbook for Repairing Clothes and Hearts g, and Patching to Practice Sustainable Fashion and Repair the Clothes You Love)
by Nina Montenegro; Sonya Montenegro
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Pub Date Mar 10 2020 | Archive Date Mar 09 2020
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Description
Mending Life, a beautiful modern sewing and mending guide with vibrant, full-color illustrations woven throughout, encourages us to break free from the fast fashion industry by repairing our clothes rather than discarding them. Along with DIY and how-to illustrations and tutorials, you’ll find heartfelt stories by authors Nina and Sonya Montenegro (creators of the popular @TheFarWoods) that encourage you to change your consumption habits, celebrate a sustainable, intentional lifestyle, demonstrate mending as a powerful act that not only strengthens the object we are repairing, but ourselves as well.
Beginners and Seasoned Sewers will find:
Basic Mending Skills - how to thread a needle, how to tie knots, and basic stitches
Sashiko - a striking Japanese hand-sewing technique for reinforcement and decoration
Darning - plain weave, swiss weave, crocheted patch, knitted patch, and needle-felted patch
Patching - the best three ways to patch holes how-to guide
Mending Tutorials by Item - down jackets, shirt cuffs, and linen
Other Common Repairs - snags, buttons, belt loops, leggings, pant pockets, and more
Sewing Beyond Mending - hemming pants, taking garments in, and adding pockets
Extend the life of your favorite clothes and beloved household items with mending with this timeless and practical guide to cherishing and caring for our belongings.
Advance Praise
“In this thoughtful and gorgeously illustrated book, Nina and Sonya Montenegro remind us what our grandmothers taught us: that mending is a radical exercise, both in its creative play and in its role in fighting consumerism and waste. For anyone who yearns to mend but needs helpful advice, this is the coziest book you’ll ever own.” —Lisa Congdon, artist and author
“The most zeitgeist-y craft titles are more than pattern books. They not only give instructions for knitting a sweater or stitching a quilt but also advise crafters on how to use up their stashes, repair what they already own, and embrace the care, time, and effort that go into acts of creation. [Mending Life] positions making things by hand as a path to a less consumerist, more centered, maybe even more spiritual existence.” —Publishers Weekly
“This powerful book, full of care and gratitude, will inspire you to give new love and attention to the objects in your wardrobe. But it will also awaken you, challenging you to rethink your outlook on the world and your role in it.” —Anna Brones, author of Fika and Live Lagom
“It is so refreshing to read through this beautifully organized and illustrated book. It will inspire you to take the time to engage with your second skin in a manner that was almost lost to the tsunami of fast fashion. Regenerating your wardrobe with your own two hands is an act that gives the planet an opportunity to rest and repair itself." —Rebecca Burgess, founder of Fibershed and author of Fibershed and Harvesting Color
“This is a heartwarming tribute to generations before us as much as it is a practical and mindful toolkit for learning to repair our belongings. You’ll be well equipped to tackle any snag, hole, or frayed end. A patch we mend into our favorite jeans becomes a thoughtful story about what we value. This is a book to treasure.” —Andrea Marie Sanders, meditation teacher and artist
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781632172525 |
| PRICE | $26.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 224 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Rachel D, Reviewer
Mending Life by Nina Montenegro, Sonya Montenegro is an amazing book with wonderful illustrations and warm stories. This book is full of useful information to help someone mend their torn, split, ripped, unraveled things. This book lays out your essential needs to get started and then thoroughly explains each step needed to mend your item. There are many useful illustrations for people who are visual learners. They walk you through cloth types, basic stitches, teach you how to darn and much more. I especially loved the art of patching! This is such a wonderful and useful book in today's world where many people have never been taught how to mend their own things. I love this book and can't wait until my children are old enough to go through it with me.
Beatrice Y, Librarian
Delightfully gentle in tone and very informative. Includes easy to follow illustrations for beginners. A great addition to the diy/eco-conscious genre.
R R, Educator
I've been sewing by hand and machine my entire life since I was 5-years-old, and am now 45. I believe hand-sewing and mending are important skills that all people should have. Sewing a button or mending a small tear is an easy repair for a garment that has a longer life span. Unfortunately, we live in a society in which we're sold lower quality fabrics and clothing that often wear in the wash and easily rip through activity or accident. I've recently returned to mending my clothing because I absolutely cannot fathom sending a comfy t-shirt to the growing wastelands of our world. I've started mending tears with embroidery patterns and replacing buttons with even fancier designs and colors, so that I may get new use for a much-loved garment. Mending Life is a great resource book for beginners and expert sewists who want to learn or refresh their practice of fixing clothes: from patches to Sashiko to darning knits. The book is filled with beautiful artwork illustrating step by step sewing and vignettes about the stories shared throughout the book. I ended the book with a new vision for how to care for my household's clothing. I highly recommend this book for all lovers of crafts, sewing, mending, darning.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the authors for allowing me to review this lovely book. It will be a big reference to return to often.
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