The Art of Mending Clothes

If you spend any time on Pinterest or YouTube, you may have noticed the ample number of videos showing embroidery techniques for mending clothes. You may have also seen some patches on jeans as a “new” trend. From the waste reduction perspective, this trend can be seen a positive.  Per the Saturday Evening Post, in 2018, each US citizen throws away about 81 pounds of clothing and other textiles annually. The U.S. EPA estimates that textile waste fills nearly 9% of space within each landfill.
Some tips to help combat this waste:

• Buy well made clothes that are going to last.  That $5 t-shirt may seem like a good idea until you wash it and it falls apart.
• Buy more staple pieces – ones that will not be out of fashion in a year. 
• Learn to mend – there really is no better way to personalize your clothes.  From embroidery techniques, embroidered patches, fabric patches and shashiko you can express your unique style.
• Imagine all the other things you could do with the money you just saved.    

Bonus content - History: In the 18th century and earlier, the most expensive part of clothing was the fabric. For this reason, people would patch and repair garments as long as possible.  If a garment was beyond repair, the stitching was removed, and the fabric was salvaged to be made into a new garment. If a garment was out of fashion, the material would be altered and restyled to match the latest trend.  The first ready-made garment factory opened in New York in 1831.  Sixty years later, 1861, approximately 60% of all clothing in the US was factory made and another 60 years down road, 1951 and 90% were factory made.  In the past, clothing was still expensive, and people owned just a few garments.  Making that clothing still valuable of patch and repair.  Fast forward to today, nearly 100% of our clothing is factory made, relatively cheap and readily available.