Difficulty: 2/10
My experience beforehand: Intermediate
Time Spent: ~1.5 hours
Supplies:
The Process
I bought this Carhartt sweater from a Goodwill Outlet where clothes that don’t sell in Goodwill retail stores often end up. Goodwill outlets are a great place to purchase fabric and clothes to recycle and use for various projects, as long as you’re not too set on what you expect to buy.
I decided to purchase this sweater even though there was a very large tear that had clearly been made by a pair of blunt scissors down the center of the collar. I figured I would be able to mend the tear and have a sweater with elbow patches, in my favorite color, for next to nothing.
I proceeded to avoid repairing the sweater for a year.
I put off mending the sweater because not only was the tear front and center, but it was also very frayed and jagged which means I was not able to do as clean a job as I would have liked when repairing it.
However, I finally decided to bite the bullet and grab the supplies I would need for the mend. For this step, I highly recommend bringing the actual garment to the store to color match the thread to it. I was not able to get an exact color match to the sweater but bringing it helped me decided what thread to buy.
I have repaired some jeans in the past with a simple darning technique but I had never tried to mend a tear. I used this video from
JWo Designs as a starting point but mostly winged my set-up and process.
The process of the mend went fairly smoothly though I had to make stitches much larger than I would have preferred because of how much of the edge was fraying from the blunt scissors.
Overall, I am fairly satisfied with the results. I knew this was not a mend that would be invisible. However, I still ended up with a good quality sweater that I was able to save from being thrown out, and gained new experience mending my own clothes. I’d say it was worth it!
I highly recommend considering purchasing clothes that might not be in the best shape but that you know you will wear if you repair them. It not only saves that piece of clothing from being sent to a landfill, but it also gives you an opportunity to learn a new skill.
