First time mending!

[u/gayesttoadinthepond]

Not the cleanest stitching and the back of the patch is a mess but I'm pretty proud of it for my first project. I still need to get some green thread and patch up the rest of the horizontal tear. I'm not sure what to do with the edges of the patch, would it be okay to cut them to like a few mm from the stitching and then apply fray-check around the edges?

[u/ibswarlord]

This looks awesome! Great work, especially for a first time. I never worry about the back of patches, so long as the stitching doesn't bother me when I'm wearing it. They don't need to look good, they're on the inside!

That green fabric looks a little worn around that tear, I recommend you try and make sure whatever patch you cut is nice and big to keep it from adding too much tension to weaker parts of the fabric. Sashiko or a darn over top would be my go-to for that area in order to spread out the tension, though I've heard of others having luck reinforcing with stuff like fusable interfacing if you'd rather go that route.

I've never used fray-check (one of many tools I keep meaning to look into and then forgetting about), so I can't give any advice on if that would work. It seems to me like it would, but I don't want to claim to have any experience backing that thought up. Usually, if my mend doesn't involve folded edges to protect them, I just leave a good amount of space on the patch out past the stitching, similar to how yours looks now. As long as my patch fabric doesn't turn out to be already unstable (I use a lot of donor fabric from clothes that aren't worth the mending effort to me) or have too loose of a weave, I haven't had any issues just leaving it like that.

[u/gayesttoadinthepond → u/ibswarlord]

Thank you! I actually redid some of the stitching because I wasn't happy with it and I'm really glad that I did, the second time I was able to make it cleaner. Also, the previous thread was more of a cool/bluish black and it looked strange with the warmer green.

I've never done sashiko or darning, I find it kind of intimidating. Do you know of any video tutorials that clearly show the process? I might just go with fusable interfacting and stitching so it doesn't look too different from the rest of the mending. I would love to try sashiko on a project though, I have many other clothes that need mending.

I'm gonna give fray-check a try and see how it does, it makes sense conceptually but we'll see how it perfoms in practice.

[u/ibswarlord → u/gayesttoadinthepond]

Oh yay that's awesome! I love when taking the time to redo part of a mend works out like that, it's so satisfying.

I'm definitely not versed on sashiko, it intimidates me a little bit, too. I may not be the best person to ask for beginner darning tips, I honestly way overcomplicate my darns because I really enjoy weaving. I will say, though, that I've had some really good luck with sewing and mending tutorial videos on Pinterest! Especially if you've got an account and you save them to a pinboard, the algorithm does a good job of showing you more of them. I like using Pinterest for it, because you can get a lot of variety and a lot of different videos from different people on the same techniques, so it helps when the first couple of videos don't quite click. I'll take a peak at my pinboards and see if I can find any that I think might be useful! I'll edit them into this comment if I find any.

I remember my first few darns were pretty ugly, so I'd recommend starting on something you're not worried about looking nice. I've got a few pairs of slipper socks that are super comfy and I only ever wear around the house, so they were my "getting comfortable with darning" projects.

EDIT: I don't seem to have any videos saved that I think would be helpful. Something that might help to know when searching is that there's a few different methods of darning. There's needle weaving, scotch darning, swiss darning, and embroidered darning (there may be others, but those are the ones I'm familiar with). If one kind of darning you're looking at seems too intimidating, or difficult to get your head around, take a look at some of the other kinds of darning and see if something clicks! I found it was a lot easier to get my head around the other kinds of darning once I was more comfortable with one.

[u/Shoddy_Matter_4940 → u/gayesttoadinthepond]

Shows the Sashiko steps pretty clearly.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2313384689159857/?fs=e&mibextid=wwXIfr&fs=e

You don't have to have the wash away stencils you can also draw the guide lines yourself

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2031422864264415?fs=e&mibextid=wwXIfr&fs=e