Mending Life: A Handbook for Repairing Clothes and Hearts by Nina and Sonya Montenegro, Sasquatch Books, March 2020
Mending Life is a beautifully illustrated, practical tool kit for repairing the clothes and belongings we love. It is also an exploration of how mending can be a gently healing practice in our daily lives and a powerful act of restoration, both for our clothes and our relationship to the world.
Mending Life encourages us to cherish our things by repairing them rather than discarding them by rediscovering intimate connection and preciousness, so integral to our well-being as humans. 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. And along the way, the authors share heartfelt stories about the powerful act of mending, which strengthens not only the object we are repairing, but ourselves as well.
“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.”
“Mending Life is not only a compendium of practical knowledge, but a moving meditation on what mending can mean more broadly. If everyone practiced the care, patience, and forgiveness suggested by the authors’ outlook, the world would be a better place.”
“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.
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“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.”
“This lovingly crafted book is a call and practical guide to a new materialism. No more throwaway mentality: throwaway clothes, throwaway people, or throwaway planet! Mending Life invites us back into real care and love for the material world, and by extension, all the worlds of our experience.”
“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.”