I love my cats. That probably isn’t a shocking thing to read if you’ve had anything to do with me. I love other animals too, but cats will always have a special place in my heart. Even when they rip the couch to shreds trying to sharpen their claws!

My current cats, Rogue and Ziggy, seriously love scratching the poor couch. Ziggy learnt about the joys of sharpening claws on furniture from Rogue, who learnt it from Moss, who learnt it from my old girl Midnight. They sometimes use the scratching pads and the scratching post, but their favourite is the couch. I miss the girls, but it’s a legacy I’d prefer not to have. So with a bit of rope, a needle, and some thread I set to work turning the torn up mess into a new scratching post.
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Read on to see how I did it, and to get an idea of how to do it yourself.

Part three of the fasteners series for March Mending is here! So far I’ve covered buttons and hook & eyes and now it’s time for press studs (or, if you prefer, snaps or poppers).

A couple of days ago I popped up How to Sew on Buttons which was originally also going to be a tutorial on how to sew on a hook & eyes and press studs. It ended up being massive, so I split it in three. Today’s instalment is the good ol’ hook & eye!

Supplies

• Needle
• Thread
• Your hook & eye
• Scissors
• The item you’re sewing the fastener onto

​I was going to do this post on three different fasteners, but it ended up being huge so I split it. I’ll be posting How to Sew Hook & Eyes and How to Sew Press Studs over the next couple of days.

Darning is such a handy skill to have. It can be used to fix up holes on most fabrics which is fabulous. It’s also one of the wonderful techniques that can be almost invisible if you want it to be, or it can be completely conspicuous.

It’s so frustrating when socks (or other items of clothing, but let’s be honest, socks are notorious for it) get worn out patches or holes in them when the rest of the fabric is perfectly good. Thanks to darning you can mend the offending areas and save the socks (or other garments)!  
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I haven’t been home to take photos during daylight. As an alternative I present images of people darning that I found online.

In this post I’ll teach you how to sew five basic and handy stitches. There’s also a bit about how many strands of thread to use, and how to knot your thread at the start and end.

If you’re new to sewing it’s worth making a little sampler with each stitch labelled for future reference. They’re handy things if you forget the difference between a backstitch and a running stitch, plus they help improve your hand sewing skills.
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Let’s get to it!

I’m not a fan of fast fashion. I think it’s disgusting how much waste it causes. I am, however, a huge fan of slow fashion.

Slow fashion isn't a new concept. Historically clothing was mended, repurpoused, and given to other people – sometimes for generations! Perhaps the best known example of this is the Make Do and Mend movement during the Second World War.

Make Do and Mend was actually a pamphlet distributed by the British Ministry of Information 1942. It was originally titled Mend and Make Do to Save Buying New, which I only found out recently. The things you learn!

Make Do and Mend are also an American post-hardcore band, but this isn’t about them.

I’ve wanted to do a post about mending since I decided to start a blog. The only problem was I was finding it hard to edit down the information into a single blog post, so I’ve decided to do #MarchMending. I’ll be posting at least twice a week from now until the end of the month covering different mending techniques along with some other helpful bitlets and boblets.
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This post is going to focus on the basic mending kit.