I went into Mend March knowing I was unlikely to meet all the daily prompts. I’ve tried enough of these monthly challenges to know I’m not very good at them! But I did a lot of mending and fixing up, and I posted 20 times, and as the late great Meatloaf once said, Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad.
I mended more than I posted. I fixed a few holey tights. I’ve renovated several pairs of knickers and two bras, bringing them back to comfortable wearability.
But it wasn’t all undies – I fixed a hole in a dress (that was right on my bum).
Sorry – as soon as the word Holey was there, I knew there was going to be a Holy [something] Batman reference. I’m a child of my time… Anyway, clicky for a bigger picture, to see the full detail of how well fixed up it is
I updated the neckline of a dress that I made quite recently, that had ended up a bit too gapey. I had some leftover fabric left, so I gave it a neckband. More of a Fix than a Mend, but it still counts. It makes the dress a lot more wearable.
I did the Punk Smocking to fix another dress with a gapey neckline.
I also got started on tackling a Big Scary Mend that had been scaring the pants off me, for the last couple of years. I made a lovely Sew Over It Zoe Dress back in 2017, using a completely bonkers Massive Paisley print**. Somehow, at some point, the fabric in one sleeve got thoroughly shredded. The other sleeve is fine. It was such a mess that the dress has been hanging in my wardrobe all this time, waiting for me to get the courage up to do something about it.
The whole spirit of Mend March had given me enough confidence to at least give this a try. I decided to start at the cuff, which was a bit worn, and just gradually move upwards. And it turns out, it’s not scary at all. I could do it all with basic darning and a bit of lining fabric to hold everything together. It’s a cross between visible and invisible mending. It’s visible but camouflaged by the bonkerness of the print!
I was also happy that I was able to do this using thread and lining fabric that I already had in stash. Because this post may be all about #MendMarch2024, but I’m still very conscious that I’m also doing #LastSewistStanding. I’ve managed to keep in the Heavyweight division. My main motivation is not disappointing Miss Taeschli! And mending is very much in the spirit of LSS – it means you’re using what you’ve got to avoid buying new stuff.
I’m happy that I’ve got a load of other menders in my feed now, to inspire and encourage me. I’ve got more techniques to experiment with as my mending journey continues. So Mend March has been a Big Win for me! Big thanks go to Kate Sekules (@visiblemend on Instagram) for setting up the challenge in the first place, and running it throughout March this year. It’s been a massive inspiration to me.
We all thought this would be the last one, because of Instagram’s stupid hashtag policy making it really difficult to follow tags. But we coped this year with microtags for each day, and Kate has confirmed Mend March will be back in 2025, so that’s a lovely thing to look forward to – Hooray!
Mend March may be over, but that doesn’t mean the mending will be going away! I will continue to rummage through the underwear drawer, to make sure I’m fixing up holes, adding new elastic and replacing worn gussets*** as needed.
* And I use the word advisedly!
** You might see other images in that Paisley print – I couldn’t possibly comment.
*** Gussets! Fnur, Fnur!
Béa's Sewing Adventures 