Find the brief of the challenge here: Visible Mending Challenge by Katie Muzyka
This challenge caught my attention, as I am a strong believer in the values behind repair and mending as a form of sustainability by reducing waste; extending the life of objects; as well as embracing appreciation for imperfection, creativity and personal expression.
I thought it was rather refreshing that this challenge included mending techniques and history from different cultures, including Japanese Sashiko and Bengali Kantha embroidery.
Originally for both cultures, this kind of visible mending originated out of basic necessity to repair or prolong the use their clothing and other fabric garments. The process does not require many tools nor materials, and often re-incorporates waste fabric and recycling as input, where old scraps are given new life.
In the Youtube Video that introduced Japanese Sashiko, the artisan Keiko brought up an important point —- “when we are going to shout out and live the importance of sustainability, I would like us to care and be respectful of cultural sustainability as well. […] and not lose the whole picture of the wisdom and stories behind it”. Keiko also has an entire video where he discusses not to worry about the fine line between appreciation and appropriation too much, under the one condition that people who do practice this kind of mending do not ignore the voices of Japanese Sashiko artisans themselves, and strive to understand and learn more about this practice.
My roommates and I are avid menders when it comes to our household items or clothing. Sometimes we would have communal mending time, where we work on our own mending projects together in the living room.
One visible mending project was mending our couch — it came with a huge gash in the cover when we got it second-hand off online marketplace. It didn’t bother us much until the gash started tearing apart more with use over time. We weren’t able to sew the big gash together, so I crocheted a patch that was in the exact shape of the gash to close the gap. My roommate then sewed the patch in place.
This was an obvious instance where mending extended the life and use of the couch significantly without much effort, rather it became a fun collaboration of our craft skills and gave our living room a more personalized touch!
However, there are times where mending might not be the obvious solution.
In the introductory article of this activity on “mending as an ancient craft for modern times”, it talks about “whether we actually mend the garments we buy directly correlates to how much we value them.” I don’t think that it is completely true, as I believe sometimes we tend to take the path of least effort when it comes to mending.
Perhaps it is more cost-effective to buy a new version of the item because it might be more expensive to repair, or perhaps the repairs may not outlast the everyday wear and tear. There are many “lazy ways” to justify ones’ way out of maintenance, especially in the face of fast fashion.
In contrast, the decision to mend and repair then becomes more of a conscious action and choice, as a persistence of DIY values and resistance to the temptation of consumerism that envelops us.