Close-up of weathered hands pushing a needle and thread through white fabric.

One mend a week, for a whole year, instead of buying new

by Margaret Lowe

A retired textiles teacher, a basket of holes and a promise. Every Sunday: what broke, how I fixed it, and how long it really took.

Read this week's mendAbout the year

Kinds of mend

Recent mends

All 41 so far
  • Hands sewing a button onto pale fabric against an orange background.

    Week 41 · 5 October 2026

    The shirt with the tired collar

    Turned the collar inside out, as my grandmother did. It looks new from the front.

    1 hr 20 min

  • Hands embroidering a pale cloth with a yellow and red pattern, a wooden spool of thread on it.

    Week 40 · 28 September 2026

    A tea towel, cross-stitched

    A burn mark the size of a coin, now a small red flower.

    2 hr

  • Hands guiding blue denim under the foot of a sewing machine.

    Week 39 · 21 September 2026

    Jeans, both knees

    The one time I used the machine. Patches inside, rows of stitching on top.

    2 hr 45 min

  • A macro photograph of a dark thread passing through the eye of a needle.

    Week 38 · 14 September 2026

    On threading needles at 71

    Not a mend, a confession, and the cheap tool that fixed it.

    10 min

  • Red-handled scissors, a thimble and pins lying on a paper sewing pattern.

    Week 37 · 7 September 2026

    Taking in a skirt, at last

    Three years in the basket. Forty minutes once I started.

    40 min

  • A woman in a blue jumper hand-sewing a white garment at a table.

    Week 36 · 31 August 2026

    Buttons for the whole family

    Eleven buttons on six garments, sewn back on in one evening.

    1 hr 30 min

Hands sorting a pile of folded jeans and coloured clothes on a table.

Forty-one weeks in. Nothing new bought, and the basket is nearly empty.

The mending basket

Everything I use
  • Spools of thread in bright pink, green, red, blue and orange.

    Kit

    Thread, by the box

    Strong cotton in ten colours covers almost everything. I gave up matching years ago.

  • An empty wooden embroidery hoop on white with a few small pink flowers.

    Kit

    A hoop, two sizes

    Holds the fabric flat for darning and embroidery. A mushroom works for socks.

  • Small red flowers being embroidered on linen held in a red hoop.

    Kit

    Embroidery floss

    For mends that should show. Six strands, split to two for fine work.

  • Balls of wool in mustard, olive, pink and beige on a white surface.

    Kit

    Darning wool

    Leftover sock yarn, saved in a jar. Never throw away the last few metres.

For you

Before your first mend

  1. Start with something you would otherwise throw away. Nothing is lost if it goes wrong.
  2. Wash it first. Mending dirty cloth hides the edges of the hole.
  3. Use thread that contrasts. You will see your stitches and learn faster.
  4. Give it one evening. Most mends take under an hour; the first one takes two.
See how I did mine
A pink tape measure and pins lying on pale satin fabric. A painting of two large blue hands holding a thread against a deep blue background.