WHO KNEW I’d Find the Key to Repairing My Clothes and Shopping Less on the Patagonia Website?

Featured on the website was a book on how to mend your clothes including down parkas. “Mending, A Handbook for Repairing Clothes and Hearts” by Nina and Sonya Montenegro is full of useful information teaching everything from basic mending skills to the more complex skills of patching, zipper repair and darning.

Why is this important in an era when clothing is easy to replace? Because the true cost of manufacturing clothes abroad is not always part of the price tag. Harm to the environment and poor working conditions are common. Mending rather than trashing slows the progression of the need for more garments and for the amount of clothing going into landfill.

According to the EPA, trashed textiles account for 6% of total yearly landfill waste. https://www.greenamerica.org/unraveling-fashion-industry/what-really-happens-unwanted-clothes#:~:text=Even%20though%20many%20Americans%20donate,percent%20of%20our%20waste%20stream

Think twice before discarding a worn item of clothing. Maybe you can mend it instead.