Mending Life: A Handbook for Repairing Clothes and Hearts

by Nina Montenegro, Sonya Montenegro

Overview

Learn the art and craft of mending—a joyful and meditative practice and a powerful act of restoration for the clothes and belongings we love. 

This beautifully illustrated handbook will show you how to mend jeans, socks, sweaters, down jackets, and leggings and other common repairs. Mending Life encourages us to cherish our things by repairing them rather than discarding them. Filled with heartfelt stories that celebrate a sustainable, intentional lifestyle, it also encourages us to change our consumption habits so that with small mends here and there, we extend the life of our garments and other household items. Encouraging readers interested in slow fashion and craftcore, this handbook is for beginners but also offers more advanced techniques to those with some experience in mending.

You'll learn basic techniques such as patching, but will have options to take it a step further with decorative sashiko stitching; you'll also learn how to darn socks and mend sweaters, as well as things like a tear in a bedsheet or down jacket. Along the way, Nina and Sonya Montenegro—creators of TheFarWoods— share how the powerful act of mending strengthens not only the object we are repairing, but ourselves as well. Vibrant, full-color illustrations are woven throughout the this timeless and practical guide to cherishing and caring for our belongings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632172525
Publisher:	Sasquatch Books
Publication date:	03/10/2020
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	100,552
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Sisters Nina and Sonya Montenegro are illustrators, printmakers, menders, quilters, beekeepers, and gardeners. In 2013, they founded The Far Woods, a creative collaboration making artwork that seeks to contribute to a cultural shift in which there is a land ethic, reverence for nature, rejection of the dominant throw-away mentality, and direct connection to where our food and the things we use come from. Many of their artworks serve as educational tools, and their practice crosses disciplines to work toward an ecologically viable and socially just future. Their studio is situated on an organic farm just outside of Portland, Oregon.

Editorial Reviews

11/18/2019

Sonya and Nina Montenegro, twins and cofounders of the Portland, Ore., art studio the Far Woods, debut with a whimsically illustrated and millennial-friendly guide to mending clothing and household linens. They do a fine job of explaining the techniques required to mend a variety of items, from sweaters and socks to jacket cuffs and pant seats. The Montenegros include information on both “Essential” and “Specialty” supplies for sewing, on distinguishing between different fabrics, and on mastering the Japanese technique of “Sashiko Stitching,” which is shown to great effect in the authors’ charming drawings. The authors suggest approaching mending with a “spirit of play” and incorporating it into daily life—a section entitled “Mending on the Go,” for instance, portrays mending as “sweet, portable work” instead of a buckle-down, desperate task. They also share reasons, tailored to a younger audience, for taking it up—as an environmentally responsible practice, a way of meeting people pursuing the same hobby, and a hobby that’s easy on the wallet. If there is any book capable of convincing millennials to pick up a darning needle rather than a smartphone, it will be this alluring primer. Agent: Kate Woodrow, Present Perfect Dept. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Selected by Powell's Books "30 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2020"

“In this thoughtful and gorgeously illustrated book, Nina and Sonya Montenegro remind us what our grandmothers taught us: that mending is a radical exercise, both in its creative play and in its role in fighting consumerism and waste. For anyone who yearns to mend but needs helpful advice, this is the coziest book you’ll ever own.”
—Lisa Congdon, artist and author

“[Mending Life] positions making things by hand as a path to a less consumerist, more centered, maybe even more spiritual existence.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Mending Life is equal parts illustrated textile repair primer and gentle prescription for fixing our fraught relationships with the planet and each other.”
—Yes! Magazine

“With a guiding mantra that 'There’s nothing broken that can’t be fixed,' this very accessible guide will encourage readers to look with hopeful possibility at their well-worn, well-loved clothes.”
—Booklist
  
“This powerful book, full of care and gratitude, will inspire you to give new love and attention to the objects in your wardrobe. But it will also awaken you, challenging you to rethink your outlook on the world and your role in it.”
—Anna Brones, author of Fika and Live Lagom

"A book to use long after the first reading. Like the garments the authors so carefully tend to, these pages are sure to take on the stains of well-worn, well-loved readings."
—Library Journal

“Mending Life walks newbie sewers through the process of mending their clothing in visible, stylish ways.”
—Portland Monthly
 
“It is so refreshing to read through this beautifully organized and illustrated book. It will inspire you to take the time to engage with your second skin in a manner that was almost lost to the tsunami of fast fashion. Regenerating your wardrobe with your own two hands is an act that gives the planet an opportunity to rest and repair itself."
—Rebecca Burgess, founder of Fibershed and author of Fibershed and Harvesting Color
 
“This is a heartwarming tribute to generations before us as much as it is a practical and mindful toolkit for learning to repair our belongings. You’ll be well equipped to tackle any snag, hole, or frayed end. A patch we mend into our favorite jeans becomes a thoughtful story about what we value. This is a book to treasure.”
—Andrea Marie Sanders, meditation teacher and artist

“Mending Life invites us back into real care and love for the material world, and by extension, all the worlds of our experience.” 
—Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, and Climate—A New Story
 

From the Publisher

04/03/2020

Nina and Sonya Montenegro's lovely book simultaneously serves as a carefully illustrated, pragmatic guide for would-be menders and a beautiful study in what it means to let go of notions about what is and isn't disposable. They weave detailed advice about how to repair clothing—beginning with a list of supplies and moving through techniques used to fix everything from socks to down jackets—with anecdotes of when and how they learned about fixing things in life. The meditations on what is irreparable and when we can take what has been split ripped or unraveled and return it to a new state of wholeness are grounded in personal experiences. VERDICT A book to use long after the first reading. Like the garments the authors so carefully tend to, these pages are sure to take on the stains of well-worn, well-loved readings.—Emily Bowles, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison

Library Journal

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