Mending With Kids

Book excerpt: Kids are tough on their clothes…Fortunately, they're creative too! Mending With Kids shows you how to make kids' torn and stained clothes wearable again using a variety of simple sewing and decorating techniques that foster kids' participation. It includes helpful tips and techniques for patching, collage (with felt and fabrics), iron-ons, stenciling, darning, embroidery, hand-painting, and much more—including templates for making your own patches and stencils! Best of all, most of these techniques are easy enough for kids to join in and put their personal stamp on their clothes—which they absolutely love doing! And with your supervision, they'll pick up practical skills along the way. In this book, you'll find practical ideas and advice on clothes-savers like: Using added bands of fabric to cover, patch and lengthen jeans and trousers (kids outgrow them so fast!) Combining patching with embroidery to make a repair into a design element Embroidering around holes to make them look like part of the original design (make a worm hole in an embroidered apple, for instance!) Turning an iron-on patch into a canvas for your kid's artistry—just grab some permanent markers and have fun Covering stains with a creative use of paint (use the stencil patterns in this book, or use ready-made stencils to add favorite animals, cars, flowers and more) And many other ideas that turn clothing repair into a shared adventure! It's a win-win-win collaboration—you, your kids, and this book!