Repair and wear
Did you know? Research from First Mile found that nearly a third of people would be more likely to replace a damaged item of clothing with a new one rather than try and fix it. We would love to help change this statistic for the better.
The rise of fast fashion means it can sometimes feel easier to buy new clothes. However, a sustainable fashion future relies on us all making small conscious changes. The good news is these can often be good for your wallet as well as the planet. Win-win!
Read on to discover some simple ways to repair clothes, plus find some different suggestions to wear and upcycle old clothes too.
Repairing the clothes you already own has many benefits. Here are just a few of them:
1. Mending the clothes in your wardrobe and wearing them for longer will, in turn, slow down consumption and reduce the amount sent to waste.
2. Learning a couple of simple fixes will add to your skill set. You'll hopefully feel a real sense of achievement when you put your new expertise to use!
3. Each repair tells a story. Even if it’s not perfect, an odd button or a coloured stitch is a reminder of the work that you’ve done and your pledge to the planet.
Ways to repair your clothes
If you’re a novice at sewing and mending clothes, start small. There are several fast fixes you can learn that will soon become your go-to when you want to extend the life of a garment. The most simple is learning how to sew on a button. We attach a spare button to the care label of our styles so that you can easily replace one if you need to.
Love Your Clothes, a campaign developed to help change the way UK consumers buy, use and dispose of their clothing, has many great beginners videos on YouTube. These include how to sew on a button, fix a belt loop, replace a broken zip pull and more.
Another common issue that easily frustrates is a fallen hem.
This shouldn't be a reason to throw a garment away. Take a look at this guide from Love Your Clothes and you can have your skirt or dress looking as good as new in no time.
Top tip! If you're in a rush, temporary hemming tape is a speedy solution to hold your hem in place until the next wash.
If you have a little bit more experience of repairing clothes or fancy a challenge, you could attempt mending a hole in your garment.
Love Your Clothes has created a comprehensive guide with step-by-step instructions that show you how to mend a small hole using hand sewing, how to darn a hole in knitwear, how to reinforce a tear, and also how to patch a hole.
Here at Kite, we love to have fun when repairing. Using a different coloured piece of fabric when patching is a great way to add a pop of colour and make your garment one-of-a-kind. You can also cover holes with brooches and badges. It is a great way to express yourself!
However, sometimes clothes don't fit anymore or they don't suit us. Then repairing them is not the solution but nor is throwing them away.
In most cases, the clothes or the fabric can be reworked into something fabulous that you will love, use and wear.
New ways to wear your clothes
Sometimes we have clothes in our wardrobe that we're just not drawn to as much as others.
By adding some new buttons to a cardi, embroidering a design onto an old t-shirt or cutting your jeans into a pair of shorts, you can refashion these pieces into something that feels new and exciting again.
Fashion Revolution have a great embroidery video you can follow.
Are you looking for inspiration to turn your clothes into something that barely resembles their past life instead? Then look no further.
Love Your Clothes has more great video guides that show you how to make a top and skirt from a dress, a laptop case from a jumper and more.
Be warned, upcycling can be addictive!
Lauren's top 3 tips
To finish, our garment technician wanted to share some of her words of (clothing) wisdom.
1. Try and see buying a garment as a promise to love it for years to come. If you’re not sure, don’t part with your hard-earned cash!
2. Consider treating yourself to a de-bobbler machine. This little gadget can give your old clothes a new lease of life in no time.
3. Try to look after your clothes and (hopefully) the less you'll have to repair them.
To read all about our planet-friendly washing and drying tips to help care for your clothes, take a look at our blog here.
We hope this blog has shared ideas that you can try to use. However, the tricks and tips are endless.
If you have any great ideas that we haven't mentioned, we'd love to hear them. You can send us a message or tag us @KiteClothing on our social channels.
