Women who turn clothing repairs into visible designs

Kate Sekules: make the damage part of the picture

Kate Sekules gives a fraying vintage kaftan a new focal point with an underpatch cut from a Western-print cotton scrap. She stitches over the horse in the print and outlines the rip with two parallel rows, leaving the frayed edges visible. The patch supports the damaged area while the horse and the outline draw attention to its history.

References: Visible Mending

On a moth-damaged rust wool dress, Sekules takes a different route: she embroiders a moth portrait. The motif responds to the cause of the damage instead of trying to reproduce untouched fabric. Her Visible Mending site presents both garments as individual project pages, and Winterthur identifies her Instagram account as @VisibleMend.

References: Visible Mending · Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

Flora Collingwood-Norris: support the weak cloth, then add pattern

Flora Collingwood-Norris found holes at the shoulders and sleeve of a very thin linen shirt. A fine darn on a similar shirt had held, but the surrounding fabric tore, so she used large patches of lightweight cotton lawn inside the linen this time. Running stitches attach the layers; a woven-looking pattern, tiling-inspired lines and circles make the repair visible. She describes the stitching as sashiko-inspired and keeps the thread one color so its patterns stand out.

References: Collingwood-Norris

For a video, start with her How to Darn a Sweater Video on the Collingwood-Norris site. The 16-minute English lesson shows a colorful checked darn worked from the front of a sweater, and includes a transcription. It is a paid lesson delivered as a private video link; the linen-shirt project is a separate readable guide. The check gives the repair its own pattern, making this a useful choice for someone who wants to see the stitching process rather than only the finished garment.

References: Collingwood-Norris · Collingwood-Norris

A small repair to try

Pulenaz starts with a small tear near the cuff of a shirt, placing a fabric scrap behind the opening and stitching it down. A row of little leaf shapes continues beyond the patch onto sound fabric, making the repair look like a deliberate cuff detail. The shirt can be worn with the patch visible when the sleeve is turned back.

For a picture made from the damage itself, start with Sekules. For a pattern that also covers a wider area of thin cloth, study Collingwood-Norris's shirt; her checked-darn video is the direct choice for watching the technique. Pulenaz's small cuff gives a beginner a contained place to experiment with a repeated motif.

Sources and attribution

1. Visible Mending

   Horsey KaftanPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

2. Visible Mending

   Moth-on-MothPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

3. Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

   Kate SekulesPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

4. Collingwood-Norris

   Visibly Mending a Linen ShirtPublished Aug 28, 2023 · Recorded Oct 29, 2026

5. Collingwood-Norris

   How to Darn a Sweater VideoPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 29, 2026