7 Ways to Mend and Repair Clothes Using Embroidery

Make Embroidered Wool Moths to Fix Moth Holes

Moth holes in a beautiful wool sweater are so sad, but with this tutorial from Nini Makes, your favorite sweater will be smiling once more. Especially because patching those holes with embroidered moths will be your own inside joke. 

Mending Moth Holes With Moths from Nini Makes

Add Color Patches to Cover and Fix Holes

India Tresselt of Yarndance certainly knows how to bring color to her mending! The holes in these jeans are transformed into colorful patches made with woven embroidery stitches. Although her post doesn't walk you through the process, her photos of the different mended areas, both front and back, will give you enough information to give this method a try.

Visible Mending from Yarndance

Create Bold Embroidered Flowers to Patch Areas

Jenny Blair has a great video showing how to add embroidery to clothing using appliqué. The tutorial isn't specifically for mending, but the embroidered appliqué technique would be perfect for patching holes. And because the embroidery is worked on a separate piece of fabric, it's even a great way to use some existing embroidered bold florals you have sitting around!

Embellish Your Clothes With Embroidery from Jenny Blair

Stitch Jeans With Sashiko and Boro Repair

The Japanese art of sashiko embroidery is commonly used for mending, often using a method called boro to patch fabric back together. Honestly, WTF teaches how to use these techniques to repair jeans. The result is a fashion piece that will make you want to wear out your clothes faster, just so you can mend them with sashiko!

DIY Sashiko Denim Repair from Honestly WTF

Rescue a Favorite Sweater With Modern Satin Stitching

This moth-eaten cashmere sweater takes on a whole new look when mended with tiny bits of colorful stitches. Knitted Bliss repaired the issues, then added a few extra areas of stitching so it looks more intentional and less like a patch. To use this method, start by sewing the hole together, then cover it with small blocks of satin stitch worked in different directions. 

Rescuing a Moth-Eaten Sweater from Knitted Bliss

Mend Pockets With Strengthening and Embellishing Embroidery

Clothes often tend to wear more quickly in specific locations, and the area around back pockets can experience extra stress. When that happens, use this tutorial from Shiny Happy World for mending the tear, then reinforcing and decorating with hand embroidery. It's functional and so pretty!

How to Mend a Tear Around a Pocket from Shiny Happy World

Patch With Colorful Fabric and Creative Stitching

In this post showing four methods for mending or patching clothes, Design Mom shows how an under patch can be extra strong, and extra cute. She starts with a strong, fusible bonding material, and then adds decorative embroidery stitches where you might normally sew with a sewing machine.  

And the cross stitches aren't the only option for stitches here. Try adding lazy daisies, swirls, or any little designs you like!

4 Secrets to a Well-Mended Wardrobe from Design Mom