Mending; Love it or Loathe it?

I have always mended my own, family and friends clothes over the years. It is one of those jobs that seems to automatically gravitate towards you as a keen sewer. My usual mindset on this is I don't mind doing these little repair and alteration jobs but I would rather be making something shiny and new. I decided this morning that I should be more positive about mending and see it as a mindful and mediative activity.

Enter two jobs that have been hanging around for a while.

First up a work shirt with a missing button repair completed.

The second item was my Merchant and Mills Camber Set top that I made last year which ended up looking like this after the first wash.

As you can see the bias-bound neck frayed as I must have trimmed back the seams inside the neckband too zealously for the viscose to survive the washing machine. I didn't have any of the ikat-style print left so rather than unpick and re-insert another band I decided to trim back the fraying fabric and hand-stitch some black bias-binding around the neckline.

The original neckline bias can still be seen so I made sure the black bias-binding was an even distance all the way around to create a 'feature'! I really like the finished effect and glad I can put this top back into my wardrobe.

What do you think about repair jobs?

Do you love them or loathe them?