Earlier this year I came across the idea of visible mending on Pinterest. Pinterest is addictive, and if I’m honest it’s rare that I actually try out any of the projects that I pin. However when my jeans started to wear through at the knee it seemed a good chance to test out visible mending.
I have a pile of old jeans that are past repairing and are waiting to be cut up to be turned into something new (is that just me?), so I cut a patch and sewed a wide machine zigzag stitch round the edge of the patch to stop it fraying too much.
I pinned the patch to the inside of the knee of the jeans to be repaired, then stitched the jeans and patch together using stranded embroidery cotton, using a stitch that is loosely based on Japanese sashiko patterns. I used a thread colour similar to the colour of the jeans, so any mistakes or uneven areas in the stitching don’t stand out too much! There are some lovely examples where the stitching is in a contrast colour though – just search for ‘visible mending’ on Pinterest.
So far the stitching has stood up well to wear and washing, so hopefully the jeans will last a good while longer – a good thing for both my bank account and the environment.