Textile Mending
Check out our collection of textile mending resources at Woodward Library and online. The collection includes a Textile Mending Kit as well as books that provide directions and inspiration for mending clothes and other textiles.
If you would like to find similar resources, including kits, look for more tips at the bottom of this page. For more help, go to Ask Us or visit a UBC Library branch.
Textile Mending Kit
Borrow our Textile Mending Kit to help repair textiles by hand. Kit includes darning and sewing needles, pins, stitch ripper, threader, measuring tape, darning egg or mushroom, tailor’s chalk, fabric scissors, pinking shears, and assorted threads and fabrics.
Loved clothes last: How the joy of rewearing and repairing your clothes can be a revolutionary act
Author(s): Orsola de Castro
Publication Year: 2021
Loved Clothes Last is a detailed discussion of the impacts of our clothes, from their creation to their disposal. As Orsola de Castro states, “The most sustainable garment is the one you already own.” An underlying theme in this book is that making clothes last longer is knowledge fundamental to our cultures and embracing these traditions is a revolutionary act that combats environmental and human harm.
Mending matters: Stitch, patch, and repair your favourite denim and more
Author(s): Katrina Rodabaugh
Publication Year: 2018
Focusing on slow fashion, sustainability, and enjoying what you have, Mending Matters provides detailed instructions (with photos) of how to use basic tools that you likely already have, like scrap fabrics and basic threads, to mend your clothes. You’ll find wonderfully detailed descriptions and images of how to mend the most common tears and holes in clothes, as well as techniques for both highlighting and hiding your repairs.
Visible mending: Repair, renew, reuse the clothes you love
Author(s): Arounna Khounnoraj
Publication Year: 2020
The first part of Visible Mending is a thorough section reviewing mending techniques from basic sewing and darning skills to dyeing cloth, with instructions and illustrations of how to repair and modify textiles. The second part of the book, includes instructions for specific projects that include common clothes repairs, ways to embellish and renew old clothes, and projects to remake scraps into something new.
Mending with Boro: Japanese running stitch and patching techniques
Author(s): Harumi Horiuchi & Sanae Ishida (translator)
Publication Year: 2023
Harumi Horiuchi describes how she uses boro techniques to fix and reinforce her clothes, maintaining them for longer but also gradually creating clothes are unique and creative. All the repairs in this book use a simple running stitch or sashiko stitch.
Mend it, wear it, love it!: Stitch your way to a sustainable wardrobe
Author(s): Zoe Edwards
Publication Year: 2021
A practical book with instructions on sewing on buttons, repairing zippers, altering hems, patching holes, basic darning for knitted items, and more. This book also has a section on refitting and adapting your clothes so you can wear and enjoy them for longer.
Resilient stitch: Wellbeing and connection in textile art
Author(s): Claire Wellesley-Smith & Alice Kettle
Publication Year: 2021
Resilient Stitch explores resilience in materials, the environment, history, and community, and how individual and community resilience can play a role in our own approach to how we think of and work with textiles.
Creative mending: Beautiful darning, patching, and stitching techniques
Author(s): Hikaru Noguchi & Leeyong Soo (translator)
Publication Year: 2022
With a focus on darning, this book is the one to choose if you need help or inspiration for mending knitted items or just want to try some darning techniques on other fabrics like your favourite jeans.
Sashiko for making and mending: 15 simple Japanese embroidery projects
Author(s): Saki Iizuka & Alison Watts (translator)
Publication Year: 2021
Provides a detailed guide to sashiko stitches that create more elaborate patterns and designs. In addition to the stitch instructions, this book includes patterns for 15 projects.
Mend! A refashioning manual and manifesto
Author(s): Kate Sekules
Publication Year: 2020
This book is a collection of information about the textile industry, historical examples of textiles and mending, fibres and fabrics, laundering, and more combined with detailed (and indexed) mending instructions and a fair amount of humour.
Joyful mending: Visible repairs for the perfectly imperfect things we love
Author(s): Noriko Misumi & Sanae Ishida (translator)
Publication Year: 2020
Joyful Mending details a variety of mending techniques from darning to patching, and the different stitches that can be used. Noriko Misumi focuses on the enjoyment of mending and begins the book with examples of some of her mending consultations about how to repair specific issues.