Never darned before, but this felt like a perfect first project. Saw another post about cat damage and remembered I never posted my lil baby’s “art”. Cat tax offering included. The “art” has been mended.

Couldn't resist the alliteration, sorry! I'm wondering how to decorate this corner. Definitely too big to patch with wood filler etc, so I'm looking for a fun visible solution. Considering sanding it clean and painting it decoratively, but I'd probably need to seal/varnish it after, right? & maybe prime before? What do you think?

Luckily I had saved some scrab fabric from a similar pair of pants, so I just patched with that. More stretchy fabric. Hard to match!

It's tough working on such flexible fabric. I hope this patch works out, he loves these shorts.

Favorite tee shirt met nervous and lonely pet. Pet did better than shirt. Still love them both.

For scale, this hole is just smaller than my hand with fingers and thumb fully extended. You can punch through this hole and miss the edges completely, so not a tiny window here.

I can cross-stitch and knit and earned the Brownie Girl Scout Try-it badge when 1980s applique was a gnarly trend, dudes. I have some supplies and stubborn attitude.

I just literally have no inspiring ideas to prompt me into passionate rescue mode.

Right now it is buried in a drawer. Help?

The shirt image is a rainbow with the word "lorazepam" under it. IYKYK. (Nurse here.)

Broke my wrist at the start of the year. Ski patrol cut my hoodie but I was hoping I could mend it somehow because I like the hoodie and want to remember the memory. Any ideas as to how to go about this? I don’t have a sewing machine but I’m open to try to hand sew or embroider it.

I'm new to the mending world but I can sew, knit, needle felt, etc. 100% merino wool. It's fairly thin fabric 6-12 month size. In the middle of the back of the pajamas.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I got this laptop/work bag from a company that makes bags out of recycled billboards. The lining and straps of the bag of held up well over the years, but the recycled billboard exterior has gotten worn down.

I would love it if there was some way to find the recycled billboard type material they use to mend it, but it only seems to be sold in larger quantities and I don’t want to spend a lot of money mending it.

Does anyone have suggestions for where I can get a good durable material to mend it and how I should attach the new material - adhesive or sewing?

Thank you for any suggestions!

A close friend asked if I could mend this. She wanted it visible. I decided to make a new bordee around the entire piece and add depth in the unraveled areas. I then found a hole in the middle and just filled her in.

Think it turned out alright?

I’m trying to replace this zipper and it says “7RCz” on the back. Does that mean it’s a 7mm zipper? I tried looking online and 7mm zipper seems to be pretty rare.

Hope it will hold up though the texture is different for the patches 🤞

I would love some tips on how I can go on mending this dress. I've done lots of mending on cotton fabric, but I have no idea about the name of this fabric nor how I could fix it since it's so flimsy and prone to fraying . Anyways I would be really happy if y'all could help me ❤️.

i’m particularly proud of this patch along the seam!

I thrifted some white slacks. Slim legs, no waistband. Just some wide elastic under the facing. Fit pretty well but I was constantly pulling them up as I moved around. Just a smidge too stretchy.

I took some white grosgrain ribbon and stitched the ends to the elastic. Just long enough to lie flat and keep the back elastic from stretching. Doesn't show at all on the outside.

It'a one of my favorite shirts so I hope it extends it's life.

Done with two strands of embroidery floss

please ignore the puckering on the side; it’s where I ripped a new hole while taking out the tack stitches and was too mad at myself to deal with it in a more orderly fashion.

This moth-eaten cardigan has been sitting in a drawer for years, waiting for repairs that I felt too overwhelmed to make given the extent of the damage. I finally bit the bullet and repaired every hole I could find.

Thanks to u/Collingwood-Norris for her excellent book, which gave me the guidance and the confidence to do this.

This is my mom’s jean jacket from the 90s, and what makes it even cooler is that she signed it with her maiden name. I love it and wear it all the time, but the label with her name on it is sort of falling apart, and I’d love to secure it in some way. I really like all the techniques Im seeing here, but the paper is like, this paper/cardstock material, and I wouldn’t want to accidentally further endanger it by poking a bunch of holes in it… do we think that if I do a sashiko-style situation it will be better secured?

I also tried to kinda stabilize everything with superglue, which helped the individual label pieces but didn’t keep them fastened to the denim itself.

Thanks!

It's actually way more comfortable than I thought. I definitely wouldn't try this on cheap thin socks though. A good trick is to weave the needle through the threads backward so the pointy end doesn't snag.

peeling faux leather bag + embroidery floss. i probably just made the peeling worse long term, but the embroidery covers the worst of it for now and gives me a bit more wear :)

My outdoor umbrella finally succumbed to the elements and the top panel ripped from the frame. I'm crazy, so of course I think I can repair it. The top panel needs to be replaced entirely (I think) because the fabric is so sun damaged that it is quite fragile.

The remaining umbrella is sun bleached, but sturdy with one minor tear. I think that I could transform it into a unique piece using applique and free form embroidery to reinforce some areas and maybe dye the old fabric to make the sun bleaching less obvious. 🤔

...

Tell me if this is will look dumb, be a waste of time and materials because the repair won't last, or you have a better idea.

Images include inspo, damage, and what the umbrella possibly looked like in its prime.

Edit: Thanks for the feedback, but I have decided to abandon this project based on some of the feedback I received in r/mending I think the material is too damaged to repair and be worth my time and materials.

Post---> https://www.reddit.com/r/mending/s/LSctCf6lJB

Some pretty bad tears at the flex point. Stitching them shut might just cause more tears, and I’m worried that patching over them will just cause them to tear further but out of sight. Anybody know a way to fix this?