From Powells.com
Our favorite books of the year.
Staff Pick
Sustainable fashion. Slow fashion. Whatever your terminology, making, mending, reusing clothes, and avoiding factory fashion is Katrina Rudabaugh’s mission. If you like Natalie Chanin and her Alabama Chanin, you will adore Mending Matters. I loved Mending Matters from the moment it landed on my desk and had to fight off coworkers for the privilege to browse it first. Rodabaugh will inspire you to mend your old battered clothes and turn them into chic wear with environmentalist flair. Mending Matters opens with a quote from Arthur Ashe: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Wow. It’s not every day when a sewing book makes you want to be a better person. This is a book for every sewist. Recommended By Tracey T., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Mending Matters explores sewing on two levels: First, it includes more than 20 hands-on projects that showcase current trends in visible mending that are edgy, modern, and bold — but draw on traditional stitching. It does all this through just four very simple mending techniques: exterior patches, interior patches, slow stitches, darning, and weaving. In addition, the book addresses the way mending leads to a more mindful relationship to fashion and to overall well-being. In essays that accompany each how-to chapter, Katrina Rodabaugh explores mending as a metaphor for appreciating our own naturally flawed selves, and she examines the ways in which mending teaches us new skills, self-reliance, and confidence, all gained from making things with our own hands.
Review
“Our clothes can have a long history, if we let them. Mending is a way of ensuring a longer life for the clothes we wear and maintaining our long relationship with them. Human hands should always be a part of the making of fashion and Mending Matters helps inspire that long story. Because #lovedclotheslast.” Fashion Revolution
Review
“This book is a joy — I love how Katrina combines practicality and a lightness of touch with a deep understanding of the issues that drive the Slow Fashion movement. Her creative, considered, and beautiful approach to mending and making is exactly what we need in this moment of overconsumption and fading connections to our clothing and textiles. Thank you, Katrina, for helping rekindle our love affair with clothes built to last and hold memories.” Clare Press, Sustainability Editor at Large, Vogue Australia
Review
“I’m excited for Mending Matters and for Katrina’s work that offers new directions within the sustainable fashion community. It creates solutions, draws on handcraft heritage, and widens the opportunities to connect with Slow Fashion through simple stitching.” From the foreword by Natalie Chanin, Alabama Chanin
About the Author
Katrina Rodabaugh is an award-winning artist and crafter working across disciplines to explore environmental and social issues through traditional craft technique. She lives in the Hudson Valley of New York.