Mending – Cora Hickoff

For this project, I chose to mend a tank top that my mom has owned since 1985. She wore it in high-school and college, and I continued the tradition.

In the picture above, my mom had just graduated from college and went on a trip to Venice with her friends. Here she is 21 years old, the same age I am now, doing the mending.

We’re both drawn to soft materials, so I ended up wearing the shirt during college as well (picture below is of me Sophomore year!). I stopped wearing it Junior year because it began to fall apart with every wash…

Because the shirt’s pattern was so busy, I chose colors that would stand out to celebrate the mending rather than blend in. I darned the large holes, sewed whip stitches along the edges, and made satin stitches on the small holes. The texture of the satin stitches contrasted nicely with the flatter darning.

At one point I backtracked because I wasn’t happy with the embroidery. The satin stitches were loose and I had to add more thread, but it was too clunky looking. Because the fabric is so old, I created more holes than were already there… 🙁

Final outcome! Darning was already new to me, and performing the technique on an old shirt was definitely a challenge. But with each new patch, it got easier.