Let’s dive into the history of mending and darning clothes! In the video above, I going through why we mended our clothes throughout most of history, why mending slowly went out of fashion from the mid-20th century onwards in favour of replacing our clothes with new ones.
I am also covering why mending has started to make a comeback in recent years, the rise of visible mending and if visible mending is the new anti-fashion? On top of that, I am also sharing a bit about the history behind the Japanese mending techniques Sashiko (刺し子) & Boro (ぼろ).
Interested to find out? Watch the video above, or click here…
Things mentioned in this video:
- Check out all my mending tutorials here!
- Visible mending with Kantha to Strengthen Worn-Out Fabric
- Evelyn Wood (the creator of #mondaymending)
- The video on Anti-Fashion by The Stitchess
- Mending Matters by Katarina Rodabaugh
Follow my Pinterest-board Remake, Repair & Recycle for mending inspiration.
If you loved my video on the history of mending and you would love to support my work by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi.com – please feel free to do so!
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Sources:
- About sashiko & About boro via www.japancrafts.co.uk/
- A SHORT HISTORY OF THE HANDKNITTED GANSEY, Flamborough Marine
- A Stitch in Time: Changing Cultural Constructions of Craft and Mending, Anna König, Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 5 (33). pp. 569-585, (2013)
- Craftivism: The art of craft and activism, Betsy Greer, Arsenal Pulp Press, (2014)
- Instead of hiding rips and tears, the visible mending movement turns them into art, By Meghan Racklin, Mar 25, 2019 via Vox.com
- Make Mend For Victory: alterations, makeover, accessories, mending and darning, (1942)
- Make Do And Mend, Ministry of Information, Great Britain, (1942)
- Mending Matters, Katarina Rodabaugh, Abrams Books, (2018)
- Mode och Återbruk, Anneli Palmsköld, Stockholm: Nordiska museets förlag,(2010)
- REI KAWAKUBO – COMME des GARCONS – RENEGADES OF FASHION FILM SERIES
- Sashiko: Make Do and Mend with style, by Kat Siddle via Seamwork
- ‘Sustainable Clothing Design: Use Matters’, Kirsi Laitala & Casper Boks, J. Design Research, Volume 10:1/2. 121-139 (2012)
- Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys, Fletcher, Kate, London: Earthscan, (2008)
- The Case for Working with your Hands, Matthew Crawford, London: Penguin, (2009)
- The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good, Elizabeth L. Cline, (2019)
- The rise of mending: how Britain learned to repair clothes again, Sarah Lewis-Hammond, May 19, 2014, via The Guardian,
- Zokin (雑巾) | Japanese cleaning cloth, Atsushi, via upcyclestitches.com
Sewing & Knitting books that include mending & garment renovation sections:
- Encyclopedia of needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont (1884)
- Household sewing with Home dressmaking by Bertha Banner, 1898 (Longmans, Green, and co.)
- Den nya stickboken by Esther Bondesson, 1945 (Beyronds förlag)
- The modern knitter illustrated by Jane Koster & Margaret Murray, 1945 (Odhams Press Limited)
- Vi Lagar – Vi Lappar – Vi Stoppar, Aktiv hushållning, 1951 (Statens Priskontrollnämnd, Stockholm)
- The reader’s digest – The complete book on sewing, 1981 (Readers Digest)
Sewing & Knitting books that do NOT include any mending sections:
- Den stora stickboken, 1975 (Prisma förlag)
- Stickat med tradition, 1963 (Svenska slöjdföreningen, LT’s förlag)
(I checked more books will update a complete list shortly…)
Images used:
Disclaimer: The majority of the images used in this video are either part of the public domain or used under the Creative Commons license. Some images however are used under “fair use” section 107 of the US Copyright Act of 1976 for the purpose of education, commentary, critique & research. These videos and images used in the video above belong to their respective owners and Miss Matti does not claim right over them.
All images & videos are presented in order of appearance in the video. Please note that the copyright to some of the images & videos belong to Miss Matti and these videos & images are NOT included in the list below.
- Book cover: Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
- Book cover: Paris Fashion – A cultural history by Valerie Steel
- Book cover: Corsets & Codpieces by Karen Bowman
- Book cover: The corset – A cultural history by Valerie Steel
- Scene of women participating in the early stages of wool preparation, washing and drying wool. From a 5th century epinetron. (Wikimedia Commons)
- Three women spinning wool to knit socks for soldiers during World War I – Tenterfield, NSW, ca. 1915, State Library of New South Wales, (flickr Commons)
- Terracotta lekythos (oil flask), ca. 550–530 B.C., at display The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 154
- Making Embroidery, Lewis Hine, 1910-02
- Fashion plate: Gallerie des Modes, 1778
- Fashion plate: Gallerie des Modes, 1779.
- Fashion plate: Gallery of Fashion, July 1796.
- Fashion plate: Women 1869, Plate 005, The Met
- Spinning Jenny: A woolen revolution
- Sewing room, Shirt factory, Troy, N.Y. Keystone View Company c. 1907
- Patched pillowcase which my friend Alex inherited from her grandmother
- Fashion plate: Women 1869, The Met
- A Month’s Darning, 1876, Enoch Wood Perry (1831–1915), The Met
- Shetland Pattern Gansey Sweaters (+ pictures of the fishermen wearing them!)
- Mending nets along the beach, St. Kitts, 1915, New York Public Library
- Royal Navy mending, Will’s Cigarette Card
- Soldiers making and mending on lower deck
- German soldiers mending clothes in Barracks
- Abraham Bosse Valet de chambre
- ‘Make Do and Mend’, Newsreel trailer, made by the British Ministry of Information in 1943
- Book cover Make Do and Mend + scans of pages from the book
- Two posters from the Make Do and Mend campaigns
- January Harper’s Bazaar 1952, Photographed by Paul Radkai, Scanned by Kristine, (flickr Commons)
- Suzy Parker, photographed by Roger Prigent 1952, Scanned by Kristine, (flickr Commons)
- Lois Gunas Wideman, May Vogue 1957, Scanned by Kristine, (flickr Commons)
- Jack Winter ad, Scanned by Kristine, (flickr Commons)
- Anne St Marie for Vogue Magazine in Queens, NYC, 1959, Scanned by Kristine, (flickr Commons)
- August 1960, Scanned by Kristine, (flickr Commons)
- 1966 fashion editorial, Scanned by Kristine, (flickr Commons)
- Heidi Wiedeck (L) and Sue Murray, 1968, Scanned by Kristine, (flickr Commons)
- Her First Lesson in Embroidery, Library of Congress
Living Large — Argonne’s First Computer, US Department of Energy - Pomeranian working on an iPad, Cookie the Pom, Creative Commons via Unsplash
- Glamour shot of the Commodore PET Mini, a DIY 3D-Printing project to build your very own, functional and Commodore PET Mini replica, Lorenzo Herrera, Creative Commons via Unsplash
- Code on a laptop screen, Luca Bravo, Creative Commons via Unsplash
- A John Lewis Partnership shop window, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, (flickr Commons)
- Marks and Spencer, Original Penny Bazaar, Grainger Market, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, (flickr Commons)
- Snippets from various sewing & knitting books
- Book cover: Reader’s Digest: Complete Guide to Sewing
- Various ads from the 1950s – 1960s
- Thursday night, your leopard print needs mending, Worn Fashion Journal, (flickr Commons)
- Mending Night!, Worn Fashion Journal, (flickr Commons)
- W. S. Underwood Pianos, Organs, Sewing machines, Wheeler & Wilson M’f’g Co. (front), Boston Public Library, (flickr Commons)
- Household Sewing Machine Co., Providence, R. I. (front), Boston Public Library, (flickr Commons)
- Women working as tailors, Boston Public Library, (flickr Commons)
Girl sewing in home economics class, John Vachon, 1938-10 - Daughter of Pomp Hall Sewing in School, Farm Security Administration Collection, 1940
- A class in dressmaking, Hampton Institute / Library of Congress, Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1899
- Sewing class, 1885, Kansas State University
- Photo of Betsy Greer & book cover of her book Craftivism – The Art of Craft and Activism
- Fashion Revolution Love Story booklet
- Bangladesh: Women Rally for Their Rights, USAID U.S. Agency for International Development, flickr Commons
- Thousands of garment workers and their unions rally on the one-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse that killed more than 1,100 garment workers, Solidarity Center,
- Rei Kawakobo photographed by Irving Penn, 1993
- Sashiko Jacket, second half of the 19th century, Japan, The Met
- Feudal map of Japan during the Edo Period under the control of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
- 5 routes, The Five Routes (五街道, Gokaidō), sometimes translated as “Five Highways” in Japan during the Edo period
- Sashiko practice pieces, Tricia J, (flickr Commons)
- Sashiko Pillow drawing, Jacque Davis, (flickr Commons)
- A STITCH IN TIME SAVES NINE in OLD JAPAN, Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- SHOW ME THE OBI ! — Two Geisha Still Can’t Decide What to Wear After Three Hours in the Dressing Room, Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- KIMONO DAYS — Japanese Women and Their Everyday Tools 鯨尺, Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- TWISTING AND TWINING — The Art of TSUMUGI in OLD JAPAN, Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- TWO WOMEN AT A LOOM in OLD JAPAN, Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- TWO SMILING CHERUBS IN THE TEA FIELDS of OLD JAPAN, Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- THE TEA PICKERS, Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- Collodion Emulsion (Wet Plate) Photo on Glass from OLD JAPAN (12), Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- Sleeveless Work Jacket for Sledge Pulling (Sorihiki Sodenashi), late 19th–early 20th century, Japan, The Met
- Sashiko Kimono, mid-19th century, Japan, The Met
- AN OLD WOMEN HEADED OUT IN THE MORNING SUN TO RAKE DRY LEAVES, Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- “HEY, KID… HOWZ ABOUT SOME FLOWERS? WATCHA SAY, HUH? WATCHA SAY?”, Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- A DOGS LIFE IN OLD JAPAN, Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- THE VEGETABLE SELLER in KIMBEI’S STUDIO in OLD YOKOHAMA, JAPAN, ca. 1880s-90s hand-coloured album print by KIMBEI KUSAKABE of Yokohama, Scanned by Okinawa Soba (Rob), (flickr Commons)
- Sashiko fabric, Littlelixie, (flickr Commons)
- Sashiko mending, Marceline Smith, (flickr Commons)
- Matching sashiko designs for cushion cover, Marceline Smith (flickr Commons)
- Pillows, done, Kim Love, (flickr Commons)
- Sashiko rainbow, Gina Pina, (flickr Commons)
- Sashiko stitched purse, Nancy Shriber, (flickr Commons)
