Like many of you, I have some wardrobe favorites that develop issues which might make them wastebasket worthy. I’ve found that creatively patching/mending these items prolongs their lives and even upgrades their appearance.

This is an Old Navy sweatshirt that is probably 25 years old. It’s really falling apart but I just can’t part with it. I found a gray-ish blue jersey fabric in my leftovers bin that coordinated very well with the color of the sweatshirt. I cut strips of the jersey a little larger than the frayed or holey areas and simply layered the blue jersey over the ragged parts of my sweatshirt. Then I hand sewed the patches to the sweatshirt beneath in the Japanese Boro style. I like the sweatshirt even better and have given her a name. Meet “Mendy”!

Please let us know if you want to learn either or both of these techniques! For reference, the Columbus Library has a large selection of Alabama Chanin books and the shirt and sweatshirt are both from the book called “Stretch!” by Tilly Walnes. The stencils I used are from a stencil book by Amy Butler which may be out of print now.