2022 Fibershed Mending Challenge
Welcome to the Fibershed Mending Challenge! We’re so glad you’re taking this journey with us. Learning to mend has personal, environmental, financial, and systemic benefits. Not to mention, mending is approachable, incredibly rewarding, and fun!
Not signed up for the Mending Challenge yet?
You can get in on the action here!
Every stitch, every mend can be an act of resistance to the destructive fast-fashion industry our material culture is steeped in. According to CalRecycle, textiles are the fifth most common material in residential and commercial waste streams. California families send more than 1.2 million tons of textiles to landfills, accounting for 6% of the total waste stream. Learning how to mend our textiles can give them significantly longer useful lives while cutting back the volume of textiles being discarded. Join us in a mending movement — to slow down, to build relationship with our material culture, to create community.
Whether you have previous mending experience or you’re just getting started, we’re excited that you’re part of this community.
Mending Challenge Details
- We are hosting our 6-month mending challenge from May through October. Participants can join at any time!
- As a participant in this challenge, you’ll receive monthly Mending Challenge Newsletters from us through October that will provide details about upcoming virtual mending events and offer resources for further learning.
- During this challenge period, we encourage you to mend your well-loved and well-used garments and textiles. If you already know how to mend, great! If you don’t know how or you are just beginning, check out our resources and classes at the bottom of this page to learn a new creative and practical skill!
- Learning how to repair our textiles can give them significantly longer useful lives while cutting back the volume of textiles being discarded. We want to capture how many items our community is preventing from entering the landfill with the simple act of mending. Each time you’ve mended an item, fill out this Submission Form so we can capture this information!
- Join our virtual community through our Mighty Networks platform! Use this space to share your projects and progress, ask questions, and meet fellow menders.
- Share your projects on social media using #mendingchallenge2022!
Where Should I Begin?
- Take stock: Which items around your house could use a little mending love? What types of items in your household generally get disposed of, but may live second lives if you learned how to mend them?
- Set an intention or two: We’ll provide you resources to help you learn, but you’ll be the one making the biggest effort. What do you hope to accomplish during this challenge? From learning to mend a garment for the first time to mending a whole box of socks, you set your goal, and we’ll back you up.
- Learn a new skill: Check out our resource and event list below to join a monthly workshop, discover your new favorite mending book, learn a fun new stitch, and more! You can also see if there’s a Fibershed Affiliate near you hosting mending workshops.
- Everything’s more fun with friends: Share this link with your community so more folks will join, attend events together, and increase our mending momentum. Folks will have to sign up with this link in order to access resources and monthly mending newsletters.
- Inspire and get inspired: Be sure to join our 2022 Mending Challenge Mighty Networks virtual community to inspire and get inspired! Also, share your projects on social media using #mendingchallenge2022!
Workshops & Recorded Classes
Recorded Classes:
- “Intro to Visible Mending by Hand: Fix Your Jeans – Simply and Beautifully!”With Nina and Sonya Montenegro, The Far Woods
- “Rear End Mend Online Class” with Jessica Marquez + class mending kit
- Various visible mending and darning video guides by Flora Collingwood-Norris
In-Person Classes & Workshops:
The following workshops are in our Northern California Fibershed region. We recommend reaching out to your local fibershed to see what classes are available near you!
- Fibershed Learning Center Monthly Mending Bar Happy Hours in Point Reyes Station, California (In-person)
- Slow Fiber in Monterey, California also holds mending bar happy hours and mending-related workshops (In-person)
Mending Resources
Note: This is a living resource list. If there is a book, podcast, recorded class, discussion, or any other resource that is not listed, add it to our Mighty Networks Mending Challenge Virtual Community here!
Books:
- “Mending Matters”, by Katrina Rodabaugh
- “Make Thrift Mend”, by Katrina Rodabaugh
- “Visible Mending: A Modern Guide to Darning, Stitching and Patching the Clothes You Love”, by Arounna Khounnoraj
- “Mending Life: A Handbook for Repairing Clothes and Hearts”, by Nina and Sonya Montenegro
- “Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art”, by Claire Wellesley-Smith
- “Resilient Stitch: Wellbeing and Connection in Textile Art”, by Claire Wellesley-Smith
- “Make + Mend”, by Jessica Marquez
- “Repaired Right Mending Booklet”, by Jeanna Wigger
- “Modern Mending: Minimise Waste and Maximise Style”, by Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald
- “Visible Creative Mending for Knitwear”, by Flora Collingwood-Norris
- “Creative Mending: Beautiful Darning, Patching and Stitching Techniques”, by Hikaru Noguchi
Podcasts:
- Reseed podcast — Episode 13: “Rediscovering the Lost Art of Mending” with Arounna Khounnoraj
- Soil to Soil podcast — Episode 11: “Can mending create a cultural shift?” with Sonya and Nina Montenegro of The Far Woods
- Check Your Thread — Episode #39: “Modern Mending with Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald” (Check out their other podcasts on mending too!!)
- Dressed: The History of Fashion — “Mend!: An Interview with Kate Sekules”
- Slow Your Home — “Katrina Rodabaugh on Why Mending Matters”
- Circular with Katie Treggiden
- YarnStories — Episode #216: “Sashiko Mending with Jessica Marquez”
- Seamwork Radio
Discussions:
Mending Supplies:
We recommend that you purchase natural fiber and naturally dyed threads and yarn. The following is a small list of menders selling mending supplies online, but we also recommend that you check your local craft, sewing, and fabric supply shops.
- Honey Folk Clothing: General mending supplies, PLUS Heidi’s guide to her favorite sewing and mending tools
- Slowfiber: General mending supplies
- Bookhou: General mending supplies
- Katrinkles: Darning & Mending Looms
- Miniature Rhino: General mending supplies
