Repairing Clothing without Sewing

Would you like to save money on clothes without actually sewing? Although I sew a lot, here are three of the things I do without sewing. 

 

1. I recently discovered a new-to-me trick: Using Pellon Fusible Knit Interfacing to mend a tear or a small hole. No sewing required. You just work on the underside, bring the edges together the way you want them, put a press cloth on it, and iron according to the instructions which come with the interfacing, just a matter of seconds. In the case of my husband's flannel shirt, the tear was not small, and the repair was not completely invisible, but it also is not very noticeable. Here's how it looks on the right side. Can you find the repaired tear? 

2. Do you or your family ever get oily stains on clothing, say a Chapstick went through the dryer in a pocket, or you spilled some cooking oil?  What I've often found works for this is soaking the item in  hot water (or the warmest water that is safe for the particular fabric) with Oxi-Clean powdered stain remover. Then I wash it normally and check it before putting in the dryer. If the stain is less but still there, I might want to try soaking it again. The dryer tends to set stains, so whenever possible, it's best to catch stains before they can go in the dryer.

3. Another way to keep clothing usable without sewing is to pay someone else to sew. Even though I love to sew, there are things I would rather have someone else do. I have found it quite reasonable to pay someone to replace a zipper on a jacket or replace a button on a more formal dress coat. I just go to our mom-and-pop-type neighborhood dry cleaners, and they are happy to help. I have used these services in different neighborhoods in different eras of my life. 

You can save a lot of money on keeping clothing usable and presentable without even threading a needle. 

Visible Mending...and what do the words Boro and Boho have in common and how do they differ?

"Boro" and" Boho" are both words which are often used to denote a type of mending or preservation of clothing. They look and sound similar but have different origins. 

"Boro" usually refers to a way of life which comes from Japan, where women traditionally used stitching to mend clothing again and again to make an item last until it almost had a new life of its own. Creating a simple beauty, it is characterized by neat, even stitches. The method of stitching is called Sashiko.

The word "Boho" comes from the word "Bohemian" and often refers to a style of clothing – and sometimes home furnishings - which uses rich and varied colors. In the recycling or up-cycling of clothing, people sometimes use colorful patches or combine parts from two different clothing items, one or both of which is often colorful.

In the history of my own country (the USA), we have "piecing" or "quilting".  Quilts were traditionally made from stitching together pieces of clothing that someone had outgrown or from the good parts that remained after an original item of clothing had worn out. Sometimes these were made into patchwork squares and sometimes they were made into varying shapes.

All of these methods of sewing have come to be viewed as forms of art. Some people today create, using these methods, but using all new materials. But there also seems to be a resurgence of using them for their original purpose, the preservation of fabric.

Here is a good video which explains "What is the difference of Boro and Sashiko?"

Mending Matters is a book which gives an interesting and useful look at using Sashiko for textile sustainability.

Do you use any of these methods? Have you come across other ways in which people preserve clothing? Do you ever combine more than one method?

 

I am neither enough of a perfectionist for Sashiko at this time, nor did I want this patch to be colorful; but I used "visible mending" to repair these jeans for one of my sons, using both a patch and visible hand stitching. I turned the leg inside out to sew on the patch. Then I turned it right-side out and stitched over the patch. The first picture shows the rip and the second picture shows the repair.