Mend It May: Breathing New Life into your Clothes

Finding ways to extend the life of beautifully made garments is not just a necessary way to reduce textile waste. It's also very therapeutic and a chance to get creative by making something unique!

During Rosie Leech's Visible Mending Workshop in the Y.O.U Oxford shop, we discovered the art of taking the time to give perfectly good clothing a second chance. 

After learning traditional sewing techniques from her grandmother as a child, Rosie took up darning during lockdown after realising she could rejuvenate holey jumpers while adding a splash of colour.

In this workshop, Rosie demonstrated the technique of traditional woven darns used to repair knitted woollen items. This technique covers and reinforces the area where the hole is. The mending can be carried out in either matching or contrasting yarn depending on the effect you're after.

Of course we all opted to use colourful yarn and add some fresh pops of colour to our jumpers!

Thanks to Rosie's expertise, we all managed to grasp this darning technique and the two hours flew by while we were so absorbed in mending and chatting.

Learning these techniques could make a huge difference in reducing the carbon footprint of our clothing. Increasing the lifespan of an item of clothing by even 9 months more can reduce its environmental impact by 20-30%. 

The fashion industry's never-ending and increasingly short cycle of seasonal trends and micro trends means the industry moves at an ever faster pace and encourages us to buy more and buy more quickly.

However, embracing slow fashion not only reduces this impact, it also helps us to connect more with the things we wear. By learning about different textiles and garments we can care for them better through avoiding over-washing as well as knowing what to look out for when investing in a high quality item.

During Rosie's workshop, it was a lot of fun to be able to spend time upgrading our jumpers with beautiful yarns and adding to their story!  I also loved how Rosie referenced some of the different techniques which can be used for mending and have been developed by different makers and cultures over time, meaning we can draw on their knowledge and mend in the way our ancestors might have done.

Making these connections with our clothes is one way to encourage ourselves to care for them and extend their lifespan. You don't need to be an expert knitter or seamstress to enjoy a bit of colourful mending, so why not give it a go and revive some of those love-worn sweaters!

For more reading about sustainability in textiles:

Learn about how EU legislation aims to reduce Europe's textile waste problem

Check out the best fabrics for your underwear

Find out more about Sashiko mending techniques for another way to mend

All images courtesy of Y.O.U Underwear & Rosie Leech.