More and more people are finding it desirable to learn the old-fashioned art of mending and fixing clothes, rather than continually buying new ones to replace slightly damaged ones that can easily be fixed. If you have an inclination to frugality, want to do your part to keep clothes out of the landfill or reduce your environmental footprint through using less – or even just want to make that perfect clothing piece last just a little longer – then the little book will help. Fix Your Clothes: The Sustainable Magic of Mending, Patching, and Darning walks you through the basic stitches and fixes you need to sew on a button, patch a tear or darn a hole, mend a seam, hem trousers, repair a zipper, even waterproof a backpack.

“If you could choose a way for your clothes to break, you’d pick a busted seam. Fixing a seam is a piece of cake!”

The instructions are simple – this is not a full-on sewing course – but sufficient to cure these small annoyances that might otherwise ruin a perfectly good item of clothing. All the illustrations are simple line drawings; if you have absolutely no sewing experience these may not be clear enough to follow and you will want to find some other tutorial for help, but at the very least the author, Raleigh Briggs, explains how the problem can be addressed (with which stitch, or what patching technique, for example); and the friendly, conversational tone will give you the confidence you need to accomplish the task. It is a quick and handy reference and how-to guide that you will want to have on hand for simple yet effective solutions to clothing repair.

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