Kaketsugi – A technique for repairing holes or tears in fabric (2021) [video]
www3.nhk.or.jp
www3.nhk.or.jp
For down jackets, you can get yourself a roll of repair tape for ~$5 that's as simple as cut and place. I used to work for a large outdoors retailer and we had access to damaged and returned goods at crazy discounts. I got a $200 down jacket for $2.50. Add the $5 roll of repair tape that I still have and we've got a great jacket that I've worn for about four years now.
It's kind of fun to do as well. Having sentimental value with the things you use is kind of nice, as long as you don't go overboard.
People earned like 20 USD a month. You ripped the pair of jeans your Uncle from America (archetypal figure from that time) sent you? Cerowanie artystyczne to the rescue.
Welp, money down the drain I thought. Local dry-cleaner tipped me about "invisible mending", so I did some research. Ended up shipping it to the UK, and paid around £120 for getting the jacket repaired - with excellent results. Some might say that's a steep price, but the alternative was binning a £4000 garment.
But I know there are people that think it could have been money well spent.
To each their own I guess.
Most pants, even the cheap pants at Costco, have about a 1" to 2" at the back seam of excess fabric.
Be it cheap, or expensive, most brands have a bit of material to make the waist bigger.
Use a razor, or sewing thread cutter (I don't know the name, but you guys have seen the tool before. They are everywhere, including Safeaway).
You carefully cut the fabric from the backside of the trousers.
Use a magnifying glass, or I use a stereoscope, in order to not tear the delicate fabric, cut the thread.
Then sew the elongated pieces together. You don't need to worry about serging the material in most cases.
In the end, if you are a 38w you can go to a 40w in an hour.
(This does not work with most jeans though. Just slacks. I'm very interested in the technique this family uses to repair fabric. I kinda know what they are doing in their repairs, but I would like to know more. If anyone knows more about this technique, I'd appreciate any instruction, or further information on this technique of weaving. I need extra income, and I'm in the Bay Area.)
"threadripper"- you know, like the workstation cpu
You mean a seamripper?
I wonder where the biggest opportunities are to get people reusing and repairing their things rather than buying new ones.
It's satisfying, usually functionally-equivalent and cheaper once you know where or how to get it done.
Back in the day you repaired things because a really well made thing would last a lifetime with proper care. But Amazon and Walmart made it their mission to get people to keep buying clothes, so now clothes are cheaper and more disposable.
I think the best thing we could do is encourage people to buy fewer things that are better quality. Maybe encourage manufacturers to have a warranty program that works with independent repair shops. You spend more with the intention of keeping it longer, and can get it repaired if needed.
However, we are fighting against the market on this. It is the same as the software subscription vs one-time-purchase model.
The economy depends on people constantly consuming, buying new things. Trend started long before Amazon and Wallmart; they just accelerated it.
Other economies are much more content to pay for reuse and repair.
I would LOVE to do this, but I have absolutely no idea how to identify quality. Is the $50 t-shirt at Macy's actually going to last me longer than the $10 that looks identical at The Gap?
Since I don't even know, I usually end up taking the $10 safer choice.
I’m unsure whether this would be good for the environment. What are the risks of not using it, or damaging it? Systematically, I believe our environmental footprint is approximately how much we earn, so deciding if the environment is better off for that choice is not obvious.
I just buy good second-hand clothes since that is more likely to be good for my pocket (and perhaps with luck, the environment).
1. Systematically, I believe our environmental footprint is approximately how much we earn. I spend less money buying second hand clothes, but I spend those savings elsewhere in the economy.
2. The revenue of a second-hand clothes dealer is spent in the economy, likely causing the average environmental impact of the economy where the store is located.
3. My marginal increase in second-hand clothing usage might cause a marginal increase in new clothes purchases. More likely for expensive “vintage” clothes since they have a limited supply, and vintage goods more likely cause a substitute goods effect for new clothes. Less likely for very low demand undesirable clothes (cheap thrift store clothes that would otherwise just be recycled).
Generally I think that most things make little difference. To make a positive environmental impact I suspect requires one to do something that has a fairly direct effect (plant some trees, change legislation), or reduces societies total impact (war, death, reducing reproduction). Reducing your use of something that is very clearly 100% petrochemical-based (gas, plane flights) makes some difference, but mostly your money goes into the economy: even 100% “green” goods are actually only as green as your country’s economy. There is massive amounts of green-washing going on, so most green goods are actually no better than whatever they replace (and from what I can tell, most green goods are worse for the environment).
Small things do have a big impact. Even just voicing our opinions makes a big impact. Why do you think eco-friendly products are so in vogue? Organic products, fair trade, rainforest alliance, products made with 50% recycled content, lower energy use devices, cars with higher gas mileage, electric cars. None of this stuff existed a few decades ago, but it has all been steadily increasing and having more of an impact. It's a slow pace, but small things do add up to big change over time.
Fabric quality is another big one, but that’s difficult to tell. But at least for cotton it’s generally a bit thicker and heavier.
Some well crafted garments also have thicker fabric near high-wear areas (jeans), or as a “patch”.
We don’t need a consumer society to thrive, but we need skilled artisans+quality goods to make it work (which we outsourced away generations ago, sigh).
It’d also help answer the more awkward issues of hidden-away slave labor that we rely on today.
I love it so much and it is so functional that I refuse to replace it.
I wish I could just mail it to a service that would fix all the holes, clean it, and mail it back.
I'm sure I could find a local tailor, but local tailors aren't always easy to find, and the whole process is such a hassle.
Seamstress-as-a-service? Any takers?
Are they pretty? No. Only so much you can do, I guess. But it's functional, and it's inside, so, no worries.
A daily driver jacket is just like an old friend.
Linus was right.
It sure is (currently wearing pants which are probably 20 years old - as such their style is also back in fashion if I see what youth is wearing these days), but only if you were raised or self-thaught to hold that in high regard. Or I could even say 'if you have common sense' but that's perhaps just bias from my part.
I wonder where the biggest opportunities are
I'm tempted to say 'education' and 'have politics push for it' but I honestly don't know at this point. Seeing what it takes to even get a slight notion of something being fixed for other global problems (climate, biodiversity) I'm not exactly optimistic about that.
I've been thinking about this lately with a wristwatch. I have a 10 year old Seiko mechanical watch that cost me $50. To get it serviced will cost more than I paid for the watch, however there's nothing about the watch that makes it less worthy of servicing than a watch that would have cost 10 or 100x more.
Other than submissions like this one?
Personally I have a bunch of patches I like that I sew over holes - we use flowers for our AirBnB sheets and it can really add to the personality. It's also a lot less time consuming than this work!
Here's a random YouTube link I found [0]. I guess the basic idea is to get a patch of the same material, line up the pattern (if any) and fray the ends of the patch to have the threads expose. Then go through and interleave the frayed thread ends to seamlessly fold into the garment's fabric.
They interview people they come across, and collect small and honest stories of people's lives. The show has been going for a long time, and they consistently manage to find heartwarming little stories in places you wouldn't expect to find them, with nothing but kindness and attention. One of my favourites so far was at a coin-operated hot ramen vending machine at the side of a road. The English narration is pretty cheesy, but I suppose it's part of the style.
You can watch the most recent episode here: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/72hours/
For archives and discussion, have a look into https://www.reddit.com/r/NHKWorldFans/.
For me, the video was about many other things. It was about skill and craftsmanship, of course. It was also about apprenticeship, about a master and his protégé. But it was also about love and affection and a father's guarded praise about his daughter. And a daughter's delight in becoming as skilled as her father. And about two craftsmen who take a lot of pride in their work and use it as a medium to make their customers very happy. This is rare in today's world. It was also about calm and peace, an almost meditative state that one gets into, when one is deeply immersed.
A really beautiful video. It's not often that one gets to pause, reflect and be touched while constantly being swept in this river of information.
Thank you.
They don't just get their clothes repaired, they get their memories alive, they care for the past events, good or bad.
The father and daughter team in fact goes way beyond working on the clothes, they somehow heal the customers as well.
A beautiful documentary, really.
https://www.google.com/search?q=billy+strings+akd.his+dad&oq...
Shuuri, Misemasu - or The Fascinating Repairmen
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVZvdZul6yhFTkZyGiXjh...
And this guy is fixing kitchen graters (although for a short moment they show him making new ones too). Perhaps used by chefs, since it looks like he has about 5 of the same type to fix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_XeZZkff0g Although they show a lady at the end opening the mail for her fixed one. Made from copper, and I guess he is puts a zinc coating on it (over a charcoal fire no less!)
I wish I understood Japanese so I could get more of the context.
To digress, Now I'm looking at https://www.reddit.com/r/Visiblemending/ with interest. Seems Reddit environmentalism is endorsing long lasting clothing and keeping them alive longer.
There's a reason those are largely gone - retreaded tires have been the cause of many accidents and blowouts over the years...
Master tailors who create bespoke clothing and work with very expensive wool fabrics may still have a reweaver that they use. It's only economically sane if one is dealing with suits, for instance, that start beyond $2000.
They aren't cheap and I really like their work, but I don't think they're the sort of place that people travel to buy from. So I imagine other tailors offer it.
https://mensfashion.thefuntimesguide.com/mens-suit-repair-re...
On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063084643/
There were tons of great stories on travel in Japan, people who make everything from whisky to bespoke prosthetics. All kinds of fun stuff.
Really made me want to visit.
- Sashiko https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sashiko - Boro https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boro_(textile) - And this sub with heaps of exampled and tips https://www.reddit.com/r/visiblemending/
I do some basic mending for clothes that gets retired to gym use, little obvious patches/sewing with slightly off color material and pretend it's knockoff Kintsugi. But I also learned value not being precious/sentimental with clothes and enjoy wear them pretty hard. Personally it feels better to just wear new clothes, especially now that performance fabrics are becoming popular. Won't wear anything without elastane if I could hep it.
But it's not for me, I only wear old T-shirts I don't care about that are full of holes.
I've got a precious pair of jeans, and a hole right in the crotch. I want a patch I can glue on, no needle required, that is stronger than the existing cloth. Is this a thing?
I've sewn up crotch holes in the past with some scrap fabric and it's not bad, but it is a bit tedious. I'm wondering if sewing in a simple piece of scrap fabric and then adding a small iron on patch would provide decent reinforcement.
But beware repairing with stronger materials. This shifts the stress to the interface between the two fabrics, often at an already-weakened-but-not-yet-failed part of the old fabric, hastening a failure in the new location.
Also some locations in clothing are more amenable to the increased bulk/stiffness. These are unfortunately not usually wear points.
Good luck though, sometimes it works out!
- Repaired a rucksack - sports kit - night clothes - ripped jeans - I've fixed my son's pricelessly irreplaceable red toy dog. (We joke (not joke), car, or toy dog, we save the dog)
Each time has been rewarding, and calming in the repetitive nature of the task.
I followed the instructions here:
https://www.instructables.com/Finishing-the-Case-With-a-Slip...
Thanks for this!
Speaking of lazy, here's where Supreme stole their identity and style from: https://www.complex.com/style/2013/05/barbara-kruger-respond...
Also, my account isn't 34 days old, so I can't feign moral superiority over anyone. I just have this one account.
There is no intellectual dishonesty here (I literally linked an article, so not sure how you landed on that) and I am pretty familiar with the guidelines. Calling a comment lazy is an example of someone who hasn’t really read the guidelines in a way that applies to themselves. You just don’t want to hear other’s opinions. Pretty simple line to follow. You’d think someone who has read the guidelines so well would know that you’re not actually supposed to be making accusatory remarks to other members, no matter how angry you get about them not liking your clothing brand. Possibly the weirdest hill to die on, given the state of the world.
I've been in this community for a number of years. Can't say I've ever felt the need to stalk someone's history, and this is the first I've experienced it directed towards me, after thousands of interactions in this community. That's 12 years of interactions. Very strange behaviour indeed.
Otherwise it's- imo- objectively - lazy -
You: “this is a lazy comment - I believe it was in conjunction with another new york artist who's studio is in the same building - Tom Sachs - he's an installation artist - and the brick was $30 - not accounting for taste huh- never the less - your point is extremely poorly made -“
The guidelines: Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community
You: "looking at your history of comments- you might consider acquainting yourself with the guidelines”
The guidelines: Eschew flamebait. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents.
You: “good thing I was here to remind you before you get in trouble for intellectual dishonestly”
The guidelines: Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.