Mending Life is equal parts a a book about mending clothes and philosophical statement on how learning to mend can change your life. Throughout the book you will find information on not just how to repair and care for clothing but how you can learn to cherish clothing and make steps away from our throwaway mentality around damaged items.

While I do alter a lot of my clothes as I am quite short, Mending Life has provided me a number of different techniques to try. Certainly all knowledge of how to hem my pants were self taught, so all but the most basic stitches included in this book were revelations.

Certainly I could have googled these things but the truth is – I haven’t.

Mending Life is a great resource for those of us who have been making do with our own self taught techniques or those of us who have tried to follow YouTube videos and haven’t really gotten them. Mending Life not just a helpful how to guide but it offers so many more tips on how what you’re doing to mend your clothes could be better. (While I have fixed holes in my socks, I have not been doing it the way shown in the book which would explain why the socks keep falling apart 😅)

In addition to providing easy to follow steps on how to repair items of clothing, just from reading this book I have been inspired to reuse some of my favourite clothes – these items of clothing are ones that I haven’t thrown out because I just love them so much and wish I could still wear. While some of these clothes are completely beyond repair, I now have a project in mind to use the material as pockets on my plain black shirts!

The biggest draw card of all of this is that Mending Life is all about how you can do all of this with just a needle and thread – for those of us making do it is an amazing book that empowers you to make your own repairs. All without a sewing machine!

RECOMMENDATIONS
If you’re a self taught mender or looking at learning how to keep your clothes for longer – Mending Life is an amazing resource! Not only does it have clear instructions and helpful step by step pictures, but the book is so encouraging in regards to cherishing clothes and taking steps to change our consumption habits.

Mending Life is a great book if you are looking towards making positive and sustainable steps in your lifestyle. Or if you are looking to make a change from our throw-out culture.

Please note: I received a copy of Mending Life from NetGalley.

I love this book! In this fast-fashion, disposable world, this book is like a breath of fresh air packed full of techniques on how to mend our existing clothing. It is beautifully illustrated with step by step instructions for a variety of visible and invisible mending techniques. Highly recommended.

This was a beautifully illustrated book on mending. It is actually an ode to mending and I love the concept. There are numerous techniques explained, but I loved the sashiko technique. I think it is interesting and adds art to the garment. I also loved the stories and quotes throughout.
Many thanks to Sasquatch Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

"When we mend, we are participating in the healing of the world, as
mending is a profound act of restoring integrity to an object and our rela-
tionship to it."

This book is more than a guide on mending, it's a love letter to mending. Beautiful illustrations, including drawings on how to tie a knot, and wonderful family stories of the authors.

With vintage vibes, this book is darling, yet somewhat impractical. While I found the illustrations charming, and the concept of mending relationships heartwarming, the pairing of the two seems unnecessary. Is this a craft book or a self help book?

I am a new sewer (on machine for about 6 months and just starting hand sewing for mending clothes) and I really wanted this book to be helpful for me but it was more confusing and overwhelming. First off, the photos were not clear for me and I’m a visual leaner. I wish it hadn’t been animated style but real photos. The digital ADR version from Net Galley has hard to understand images, blurry black backgrounds on photos, and left me frustrated when trying to understand. The written content was good but I did not feel like the book was right for what I was hoping for. It may be good and helpful for someone who has a advanced understanding is sewing, but not for someone like me.

A lovely, meditative little book on the art of mending. Part manual, part memoir, the authors include various techniques for mending and darning, as well as personal remembrances of repairing clothing with their father. Quirkily illustrated with hand drawings. It takes a while to get to the actual sewing techniques, but the reader will enjoy paging through the sketches of people and patches.

This lovely book is both a reference book and a collection of calming essays on the art of mending. The authors present the topic of mending as a restorative, meditative act. Nothing in the world that's broken can't be fixed, is their premise.

From a reference point of view, this book has it all. You can learn how to mend your jeans, leggings, sweaters, zippers, you name it. This book is a keeper you'll want to hand on to and use when you unexpectedly need it. The art of mending is a skill that's largely been lost to most Americans. This book will help new generations learn lifeskills they might have learned from their moms and grandmothers a century ago.

The illustrations are lovely, and the writing is encouraging and serene. Best read on a color device to appreciate the artwork!

A lovely book on a trendy topic. Heartfelt family stories blend well with facts about our current garment industry and purchasing habits to give us a nostalgic overview of why mending is so important. Add in simple yet affective sketches and this book quickly becomes a must have resource for anyone looking to begin hand sewing/mending.

When I was a young teen, I took a sewing class.  For some reason, the skills needed for making a skirt or a jumper did not come easily to me.  So, it was with great interest that I picked up this title on skills that I lack.  What I found was a gorgeous book, beautifully illustrated and filled with quotes.  In it,  the authors teach so much that one needs to be able to mend, beginning with the basic threading a needle.  It becomes clear that mending is also full of metaphor for life.


We are entering a time when popular wisdom is suggesting that we reuse and recycle our clothes rather than always buying new things.  So, this book on sewing and more is quite timely.


Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this lovely book.  All opinions are my own.

Thank you Net Galley. I have always enjoyed sewing, especially reusing and repairing old clothes and fabrics. This book was perfect for me. I loved the layout and the way the author has connected "mending" with a philosophy for life. Highly recommended.

Mending Life, A Handbook for Repairing Clothes and Hearts by Nina Montenegro; Sonya Montenegro Is a delightful and informative. Not only does the book delve into patches, mending, darning, taking in garments, sewing buttons, sashiko stitching among other things it combines the age old art of mending and why we mend. It is about saving a garment, blanket or other item and ultimately saving the earth and saving us money. There are interesting stories from the authors about how mending was important to them as a child and how it became important to them as adults. The book also describes the feelings one achieves while fixing and mending and the nurturing of our creative side. Surprisingly the length of the book was surprising. It is over 200 pages long. There are wonderful illustrations and detailed illustrations for each technique. This book is wonderfully done.







Sasquatch Books

I really enjoyed this book it is very informative and includes easy to follow illustrations for beginners. Mending Life by Nina Montenegro and Sonya Montenegro is full of handy tips and warm stories. This book is full of useful information to help someone mend their torn, split, ripped, or unraveled things. This book lays out how to get started and thoroughly explains each step needed to mend your item. There are many useful illustrations for people who are visual learners. They walk you through cloth types, basic stitches, and much more.

I especially loved the art of patching and the Sashiko Stitching technique. The patched look is a very popular right now and really adds a longer life to clothes that most people toss away when they could prolong its lifespan and look good doing it. People actually buy clothing that have been pre-patched and pay a fair amount for the look.

Replacing a button or mending a small tear is an easy repair for a garment unfortunately, we live in a society in which we're sold lower quality fabrics and clothing that often wear in the wash and easily rip through activity or accident. I've recently started mending my clothing because I absolutely love certain items that I am not ready to let go simply because it ripped. Now I can extend the life of a much-loved garment or other item.

Mending Life is a great resource book for beginners and experts who want to learn or refresh skills repairing clothes: from patches to Sashiko to darning knits. The book is filled with artwork illustrating step by step instructions that even include what types of knots to use or if you even need them for your repair. I highly recommend this book for all lovers of crafts, sewing, or mending. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

Mending Life is one of those books that is both delightful and useful. It’s about what has become known as “Slow fashion” , how to refrain from buying yet more clothes and repair what we have. The wonderful thought of honouring a sheep whose wool made your hat or sweater and repairing it several times over. Sheep need shearing to keep them healthy and comfortable and although there has been quite a lot of animal cruelty sites insisting sheep suffer when shown this is nonsense. That apart there are so many methods of darning I am surprised. Lovely simple drawings to illustrate and show exact ways to darn according to what the garment is, glove, socks, sleeve. Etc.

How to needle felt a moth hole in a precious sweater, the simple tools needed are listed.

Repairing houses linen used to be something most housewives would learn to do, taught my their mothers and grand mothers or at school. Now you have this book to show show and even how to repair shirt cuffs and more.

Sewing and mending are calming, meditative things we can take in a bag and pull out on a train, picnic, holiday. Restoring memories and bring new life to clothes in a fun yet practical way.

This is currently a fashionable craft to learn but one that helps the planet, soothes the sewer , saves money and brings wonderful satisfaction when completed.

As the book says”There’s nothing broken that can’t fixed”.

Explore the possibilities, learn new skills, keep the craft of sewing and mending alive.

Buy the book, it’s lovely!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read an arc in exchange for an honest review.

We all have things we love, whether they be a favourite ornament, book or pair of jeans. The problem with loved items though is they can wear out or become broken because of overuse. In this book it is clothes and fabric or woollen items which are focused upon and in a sensible but also a sensitive manner.

There is nothing enjoyable in taking up a pair of jeans but mending and prolonging their life is a different matter altogether. Carefully constructed to start with the absolute basics, threading the needle, through to fastening off and everything in between, this book shows the best way to work but also to gain mindfully from the process.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, including the lovely illustrations and, in an age of recycling and upcycling, it makes sense that repairing and repurposing should be just as much the norm which is what this book shows in a friendly unpretentious way. It is a book of skills to be shared and maybe become as loved and well used as the things it teaches you to rescue and respect.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone who wants to perfect the skills of mending and relaxing at the same time. It isn't a preachy self help book but one which can only lead to a sense of achievement and a job well done.

This book is part slowing down and recycling clothing and part practical work book for the uninitiated to the wonderful world of mending, sitting and thinking whilst not only giving an item a new life but making it more beautiful and filled with love.

After reading this book, I almost immediately picked up and mended my merino cardigan that was full of holes! Not that it was going into the landfill. I just kept putting off the mending! Mending Life was that inspiring!

I found the many techniques for giving clothes a new life very useful. I loved the charming illustrations as well. I wish that some photographs were provided however. I wanted to know how the real results looked like.

I never related mending clothes to relationships, and loved how this book managed to do that so skillfully and lovingly.

Thank you Netgalley and Sasquatch Books for the ARC. This is my honest review.

I've been sewing by hand and machine my entire life since I was 5-years-old, and am now 45. I believe hand-sewing and mending are important skills that all people should have. Sewing a button or mending a small tear is an easy repair for a garment that has a longer life span. Unfortunately, we live in a society in which we're sold lower quality fabrics and clothing that often wear in the wash and easily rip through activity or accident. I've recently returned to mending my clothing because I absolutely cannot fathom sending a comfy t-shirt to the growing wastelands of our world. I've started mending tears with embroidery patterns and replacing buttons with even fancier designs and colors, so that I may get new use for a much-loved garment. Mending Life is a great resource book for beginners and expert sewists who want to learn or refresh their practice of fixing clothes: from patches to Sashiko to darning knits. The book is filled with beautiful artwork illustrating step by step sewing and vignettes about the stories shared throughout the book. I ended the book with a new vision for how to care for my household's clothing. I highly recommend this book for all lovers of crafts, sewing, mending, darning.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the authors for allowing me to review this lovely book. It will be a big reference to return to often.

Mending Life by Nina Montenegro, Sonya Montenegro is an amazing book with wonderful illustrations and warm stories. This book is full of useful information to help someone mend their torn, split, ripped, unraveled things. This book lays out your essential needs to get started and then thoroughly explains each step needed to mend your item. There are many useful illustrations for people who are visual learners. They walk you through cloth types, basic stitches, teach you how to darn and much more. I especially loved the art of patching! This is such a wonderful and useful book in today's world where many people have never been taught how to mend their own things. I love this book and can't wait until my children are old enough to go through it with me.

Delightfully gentle in tone and very informative. Includes easy to follow illustrations for beginners. A great addition to the diy/eco-conscious genre.