There are many decorative ideas you can use when upcycling to change or embellish your garments, either using hand or machine sewing, dyeing and other creative crafts. The following are some of the most popular:
Visible Mending
Visible mending is not a new technique but is the stylish and sustainable way to repair clothes. It’s essentially about mending any unused or damaged items of clothing and fixing up with a visible stitch here or a fabric patch there so that they can last.
It involves going back to the relationship we previously had with our garments to give them a new life and a fresh new style, just as our grandmothers did before us.
Buying second hand and upcycled clothes from Op Shops, eBay and vintage shops saves clothing from landfill and visible mending feels like the natural extension of this.
It not only makes clothes last longer, but visible mending also is a way to celebrate the life of the garment and keeps it in circulation.
Sashiko and Boro Inspired Patching
Boro is a type of Japanese hemp textile that has been mended or patched. The name comes from boroboro which means something tattered or repaired. Boro came to mean clothing worn by the peasant farming classes, who mended their clothing out of necessity.
Authentic Boro was used regularly for a long time and repeatedly mended as needed using a simple running stitch called Sashiko (little stabs), using spare or discarded scraps of fabric. Boro is the result of the ultimate repetition of Sashiko stitching.
Japanese textile traditions like Boro and Sashiko are easily the most utilised in visible mending. It’s important to respect and honour the fact that these traditions were developed in Japan over time to maximise the longevity and utility of a very scarce resource and cannot be reproduced in my workshops today.
However, Boro and Sashiko traditions will be used as inspirations for some modern visible mending, using patches and embroidery stitches.
Embroidery
Embroidery is the art of applying decorative designs onto different types of fabric using a needle or machine needlework. These motifs are traditionally stitched in a variety of threads and are composed of different kinds of stitches.
To upcycle your garments you can add a freeform decoration by attaching pieces of fabric with embroidery stitching or just simply add flowers or other decorative designs.
Sashiko
Sashiko is a Japanese form of decorative reinforcement stitching and is frequently translated as “little stabs”. It was practised in the Edo period in Japan (1603-1868), when rural women attempted to prolong the life of their household tattered garments and bedding, giving rise to a humble form of white stitching on indigo patchwork known as Boro.
In its traditional form, Sashiko stitching has been practised in Japan for thousands of years and used a white cotton thread on indigo hemp fabric.
In my workshops, this visible mending stitch and associated geometrical designs are now used as an inspiration to mend tears in fabrics and as a decorative stitch on patches.
Sewing
Sewing is the process of using a needle and thread to connect pieces of fabric or attach them to fabric surfaces.
Today sewing is done by hand or on a sewing machine, or other electric equipment and that makes the process quick and efficient.
Sewing is a practical skill used to make, repair or mend clothing. It’s great for garment mending and investing some life back into your clothes, as you can do simple or creative repairs, depending on your interest and skill level.
Ultimately mending projects can help keep your clothing wearable for longer and out of landfill. It can also function as a creative outlet no matter how far you take your designs.
Dyeing
The fashion industry’s colouring processes including water waste, chemicals in groundwater and heavy metals contamination have a huge negative impact on the environment.
There are climate-friendly alternative dyes like natural dyes that are biodegradable, non-toxic and non-allergenic, making them generally better for the environment and for use around humans, as they don’t have any carcinogenic components which are found in many synthetic dyes.
Natural plant dyes are great for changing the colour of old clothes or creating some unique fibres for upcycling projects.
