Visible Mending
I’ve always loved kintsugi — the Japanese art of repairing objects by mending them lacquer that contains gold or silver. A broken bowl comes back together, crossed with beautiful lines.
I recently learned about visible mending, the act of repairing holes in clothing so they can continue to be of use, but making the repairs visible. The mending speaks volumes: “This item is so loved that it was fixed instead of tossed aside.”
It feels like a good metaphor for living life. For making the most out of crappy situations and brokenness. But doing so openly; in full admittance that life is not Instagram. Even though visible mending is well represented on Instagram.
I have a pair of yoga pants with an enormous hole in the knee. I’ve continued to wear them, and the hole has grown bigger and bigger. I wish I had found this earlier when the hole was still a tiny patch of thinned fabric. But doing this is kind of a Valentine to your favourite things.
3 comments
I love the metaphors of sewing and mending and keeping and healing.
Ooh, that’s exactly what I will do for my favourite pair of yoga pants! I’m wearing them now, mended them with black cotton, but might put a more fun patch on them now.
We used to do this a lot when I was growing up in the 1970s… hole in your jeans? Put a cool patch on it. (I still have a pair of shorts I had as a teenager with a strategically placed patch on the butt, lol. They are SO TINY… and SHORT!! lol And to think that I probably thought that I was so fat then, too!!) I got too tall for one pair of jeans, and rather than buy me a new pair right away, my mom sewed a wide piece of ribbon on the bottom that had peace signs on it. They were bell bottoms too. I thought I was SO COOL!! lol