Weekend Review: Visible Mending

Visible Mending / Jenny Wilding Cardon
Bothell, WA: Martingale, c2018.
80 p.

This book is much shorter than the previous mending book I just reviewed; but I liked it just a shade more. This book is not so much about the philosophy or politics of mending, it just tells you how to do it. It's practical and to the point. I appreciate that.

It also has a wide variety of instruction -- from boro stitching to embroidery, patching, and darning. The author has a colourful sensibility; this isn't all denim and white sashiko mending. Thank goodness! I like the colours and the variety of styles and options shared in this book. It's also nice that the author uses fabrics and items which are not denim -- there are ideas for tea towels to tote bags! And she includes some ideas for mending a sweater as well.

And she also goes beyond hand stitching options, which I haven't seen talked about as often in this area. The last chapter covers machine mending -- really useful for when you want to repair something in a hurry. Machine stitching also gives a different look and feel, which is nice for people who aren't so much into the folksy hand stitching look.

Overall this short book had quite a few great ideas, and shared lots of examples. Again, the examples are the author's taste so may not appeal to all readers. But the techniques are solid and are shared with good visual and text instructions. I'm sure that readers interested in these techniques could adapt them to their own style. I liked this one a lot -- short and sweet and useful.