Hand Mending Made Easy: Save Time and Money Repairing Your Own Clothes

by Nan L. Ides

Twelve easy, well-illustrated lessons demonstrate how to mend clothes in the comfort of one’s home. Chapters include basics from threading a needle and sewing on buttons to repairing seams and fixing seams and buttonholes, ironing techniques and repairing broken zippers, all done without a sewing machine. The easy to read, step-by-step language allows anyone to sew ripped hems, replace missing buttons, fix sweater snags and so much more, replacing unwearable garments back into their wardrobe. Proving that mending is an easy, money and time saving skill that anyone—men, women, children—can do, this reference is an essential resource for any household.

Genres: Sewing, Crafts

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect beginner's manual for mending your own clothes. A copy of this and a basic sewing kit would be an excellent 'going out on your own' care package! This very slender book covers supplies, basic stitches, how to use a needle threader, how to start and stop seams, replacing/repairing closures, hemming, replacing elastic, fixing ripped seams, sweater snags, and patching. In particular, it includes skills that we didn't cover even when there were home ec classes, like sewing on snaps and hook-and-eyes, repairing pockets and linings, and two quick suggestions for ways to help certain types of zipper problems (though it doesn't go over how to replace a zipper).

Instructions are clear and illustrated with excellent line drawings and photos.

[Meg Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear instructions with good illustrations make a good book that would be a good addition for any home library. If you are able to do your own mending, you can put your clothes back into rotation more quickly and make them last longer, without having to take them to (and pay) a tailor.

[Gwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid instructions for the simple repairs that even a novice can do: straightforward directions for sewing on a button, hemming pants/skirts, and patching holes. I would probably buy this book to use as a reference.