I started mending pants a year ago because I had more pairs with giant holes in them than ones I could wear out of the house. It’s been a fun creative outlet for me. These ones I’ve had to come back to a bunch of times because the denim is really soft and broken in and new holes pop up all the time. Never give up, never surrender.
I actually normally hate the look of shashiko used to mend clothes. Often looks a little too art teacher for my tastes.
I love what you’ve done here, it’s harmonious, intentional shapes and colours.
Beautiful work that’s changing my mind a little on this type of project.
Yeah I find that with decorative crafts there’s this arc where you start out, you learn the basics, you get a few reps with the sort of standard well-established forms, and then there’s a point where you have an urge to go buck wild and try out all the possible combinations of shapes and colors and materials. Like when all you have is a hammer every problem starts to look like a nail. You are at risk of doing your art thing injudiciously all over everything you own. My wife was definitely getting concerned 6 months in that her future was showing up to events with a guy dressed like a rodeo clown.
I found this with framing and mounting art. After about 3 pieces you get bored with off-white mats and you want to get more creative. But I find that there are infinite possibilities, and almost all of them are ugly. Sometimes the real skill is restraint, and doing the standard thing but doing it well. Like I would love to get to the point of being able to do INvisible mending and alterations and pattern making. But for now I’m enjoying screwing around with old pants.
These ones I really tried to keep it chill at first, like I was only going to use white thread. It didn’t last, but I’m ok with it. I’m still not 100% on the blue stitched design that I made up. I think it needs something else but I’m trying to force myself to have a little self control.
The blue spirals? LEAVE. IT. 😂 it’s my favorite part! I love the choice for mostly all white on the pale denim. That part stands out just enough
What you have to say is my sentiments exactly. My true craft is knitting, and once you get past the stage of grabbing beautiful hand dyed skeins…. Only to knit up clown barf… hopefully you divert into creating interest with shapes, texture and intentionally placed colour.
Well said!
100% my greatest talent in any hobby or avocation is the shopping part. I’m very proud of my picture framing arsenal, including stacks of mat material that have sat untouched for four years; my complete, state-of-the-art rack of rock climbing gear in an amazing range of colors, sufficient for scaling El Capitan, which I haven’t touched in a year and a half; and my piles and boxes of fabrics, sewing tools, and “things to mend.” That takes up a corner of the living room. Not to mention the various apparatuses and collections for skiing, soccer, woodworking, drums, home improvement, books, gardening, skateboarding, mountain biking, camping, backpacking, etc etc etc.
But at some point you have to actually do the actual hobby, and it’s nice when the result is actually useful or nice to look at.
The key is a ruler and the Pilot FriXion erasable pens (for light colored fabric). They erase with heat so you can draw your grid on there and sew sew sew, then when you’re done throw an iron on it for like 3 seconds and the marks disappear.
I get most of my pattern ideas from these couple books I’ve collected. The blue curvy design on the left thigh I made up. The white one just below that I’m pretty proud of, I played around a lot with taking classic basketweavey grid based patterns and distorting the grid to make them a little more interesting.
Oh the other thing is I rarely do the sashiko technique where you gather several stitches in a row at one time. I typically go through the fabric from front to back, like perpendicular to the fabric, pull the thread all the way through, and then back through from back to front and pull the thread all the way through. This is definitely slower but I feel like I have a lot more control over exactly where each stitch stops and starts. Especially when you’re sewing 2+ layers of fabric together.
This is great! Thank you for the disappearing pen recommendation. Again, beautiful work! I have a couple pairs of pants in a mending pile. I've done visible mending on shirts, but this will be my first time attempting pants. The seams are so much more complicated!
I’ll add some pics of the inside of the pants. I’m not really interacting with the seams in the way someone who has actually made pants might. I’m just trying to reinforce the holes and thin spots and then attach the reinforcing fabric to some solid part of the original pants (or to a previous nearby patch).
That's great! Esp the before picture is super he helpful. You clearly have a good eye. I'm excited for my Pilot pens to arrive. I've found typical marking pens for sewing to be awkward.
Thanks!
It goes by several names but I think the most common one is Speed Weave. There are a million different versions available, I think I paid $20-30 for this one on Amazon.
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u/supershinythings Feb 06 '25
I sense an opportunity for some Space Invaders if you’re looking for something blocky and fun.
Your mending looks GREAT!