Visible Mending-How to Repair an Old Quilt Simply and Beautifully

Not that the party was boring, I was just exhausted from doing too much…again. All I could think about was getting into my warm, comfy bed under my favorite, soft, well-worn quilt. Finally home and just where I wanted to be, I went to pull the covers up to my chin just as my thumb went right through the top of the thread-bare bedcover!

Make Do With Visible Mending

Throw it away? Never! This quilt has a history with me and therefore it has my heart. With this in mind plus an effort toward better sustainability, let’s do some visible mending!

This particular cotton quilt is one I’ve had for many years now. I love it. It’s soft and cozy, and it’s a good weight that’s appropriate for year-round use.

Over time, however, it has shown signs of wear and tear. It developed a few holes, so I plan to repair those holes. Since it’s a white quilt, I’m using some white thread and patches, but one of the holes will be mended using a contrasting fabric just for fun!

Supplies

1- Embroidery floss (white) since it is thick and strong.

2- White cotton fabric

3- Rick rack? (not sure yet)

4- Red cotton fabric with a fun pattern on it (not pictured…yet)

5- Needle

6- Scissors

How to Visibly Mend

For the first hole, I thought I’d use a technique that is very much like darning a sock. I’m not using a darning egg or anything like that, but I want to weave the threads to form a strong, resilient patch over the hole.

-First, I stitched some parallel straight lines, leaving space underneath to weave the threads.

-Second, I took the thread and wove it in crosswise to get the desired effect. It helped me to think of first going east to west, then north to south.

-Then, I thought I’d try to make a patch out of the white cotton fabric. Since this hole is much bigger, this makes things a little easier.

I cut the patch slightly larger than the hole itself, then turned the edges under. Then, I just used regular sewing thread to whip-stitch it all the way around. I encourage you to practice using scrap fabric and watching the video below if the whip-stitch is new to you:

And now for some contrast…

Colorful Visible Mending

For the obviously visible patch, I cut a heart pattern out of paper first by folding a big enough piece of paper in half, then trimming it to a heart shape, just like we used to do in pre-school.

Then I used that pattern to cut out the fabric.

Red fabric with tiny white hearts, white paper heart pattern attached with two straight pins, scissors on bumpy gray background

I turned the edges under and used a blanket stitch in pink thread to secure it all the way around.

Red fabric with white hearts in the shape of a heart, blanket-stitched onto white quilt with pink thread

In a way, it is a little silly to call it “visible” mending, because it’s on the underside of the quilt! But I figured that would be a safe bet since I’m practicing for more TRULY visible mending adventures in the future, hopefully.

If you don’t have advanced sewing skills, that’s ok. This is the perfect type of project for a beginner, especially if you are looking for ways to practice sewing stitches.

(If you need to, please refer to the 2 short videos in this post, as well as the longer video, to see how to make the stitches. Replay as many times as necessary.)

The stitches I used were all done by hand. I used a whip-stitch(previously shown), a straight(ish) stitch, and a blanket stitch. See the short video below if you need help learning how to blanket stitch. As above, I recommend practicing on some scrap fabric before stitching your project.

These stitches are all good to know and to have “up one’s sleeve” whenever mending is necessary.

I say this because I have been in situations where someone needed a quick fix – either they didn’t realize the garment was too long – so I hemmed it – or something tore – so I repaired it.

It’s simply good practice to have knowledge of several stitches in one’s “arsenal.”

Later I noticed one area that needed a good mend which was on the front side of the quilt and I thought stitching a bit of lace would be perfect. It’s hardly noticeable, yet it looks delicate and lovely.

For that, I just cut a piece of lace to size with enough to fold the raw edges under, pinned it, and secured it with a whip stitch.

Make Do With Visible Mending

Well, I didn’t end up using the rick rack after all. Sometimes that happens. Oh well.

As more holes keep forming, I’ll continue to fix them.

I’d also like to sew some blanket binding around the edges of the quilt as they are starting to look frayed. I’ll let you know if I do.

Is that favorite quilt wearing thin? Are you struggling with whether or not to keep it or replace it? Are you willing to give mending a chance? And if you are, will you try any of these visible mending methods?

I’d love to know if you do in the comments below. Please share!