![]() ![]() Unlike earlier eras, modern mending is not trying to make the repair invisible but instead embraces the beauty of #VisibleMending with contrasting colors or patterns. Mending, in fact, is trending. Between new books, museum exhibits and “mending cafes,” mending is having a moment. By the most recent measure in 2015, we generated over nine times as much, or 16,030,000 tons as municipal waste. In 1960, Americans turned 1,760,000 tons of textiles into municipal waste. The Environmental Protection Agency found exponential growth in our generation and trashing of textiles. Amid the Marie Kondo-inspired frenzy to declutter, we fool ourselves if we think that our trashed textiles are gone once we discard them. Mending re-centers poor people, women and people of color as innovators, design-thinkers and problem-solvers. Our ideas about innovation come these days primarily from the tech sector and those privileged few with venture capital. In an interview with Sew Irregular, Tom says, “I don’t ‘make do’ and mend, instead I choose to mend.” The World War II “Make Do and Mend” campaign by the British government was born out of hardship and scarcity. Tom Van Deijnen, a mender known as Tom of Holland, speaks wisely about why we mend now. During some of our history, mending was patriotic now, purchasing is.įor most people today, however, mending is a choice. Department of Agriculture issued mending pamphlets. In the early and mid-20 th century, the U.S. Generations of young women before me learned mending as a domestic necessity, demonstrated in “mending samplers.” These samplers show mending so skilled that the repairs would appear invisible. Mending is repeated practice that connects me to so many repairers. Mostly, I’ve learned mending by sitting down and silently stitching. My teachers are YouTube videos, vintage pamphlets and octogenarian church ladies. So stitch by stitch, I’m learning to repair. We talk about “mending the social fabric of our nation,” “tears in community” and “repairing the social safety nets.” I’ve turned to mending, in part, because so much in all of our lives feels as if it is fraying and ripping apart. I have set out to learn with my hands what I longed for in my life: to repair what is torn. In practice, most Americans know very little now about mending. And yet, I’ve made the commitment to slow down, stitch more and teach others as I take up mending as a spiritual practice. Overnight delivery can get me a new pair by the time I wake up tomorrow. ![]() (RNS) - There is not much reason to mend a worn sock. ![]()
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