Mending Life

Selected by Powell’s Books “30 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2020”

“Mending Life is not only a compendium of practical knowledge, but a moving meditation on what mending can mean more broadly. If everyone practiced the care, patience, and forgiveness suggested by the authors’ outlook, the world would be a better place.”
—Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing and Saving Time

“In this thoughtful and gorgeously illustrated book, Nina and Sonya Montenegro remind us what our grandmothers taught us: that mending is a radical exercise, both in its creative play and in its role in fighting consumerism and waste. For anyone who yearns to mend but needs helpful advice, this is the coziest book you’ll ever own.”
—Lisa Congdon, artist and author

“Positions making things by hand as a path to a less consumerist, more centered, maybe even more spiritual existence.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Mending Life is equal parts illustrated textile repair primer and gentle prescription for fixing our fraught relationships with the planet and each other.”
—Yes! Magazine

“With a guiding mantra that ‘There’s nothing broken that can’t be fixed,’ this very accessible guide will encourage readers to look with hopeful possibility at their well-worn, well-loved clothes.”
—Booklist

“This powerful book, full of care and gratitude, will inspire you to give new love and attention to the objects in your wardrobe. But it will also awaken you, challenging you to rethink your outlook on the world and your role in it.”
—Anna Brones, author of Fika and Live Lagom

“A book to use long after the first reading. Like the garments the authors so carefully tend to, these pages are sure to take on the stains of well-worn, well-loved readings.”
—Library Journal

“Mending Life walks newbie sewers through the process of mending their clothing in visible, stylish ways.”
—Portland Monthly

“It is so refreshing to read through this beautifully organized and illustrated book. It will inspire you to take the time to engage with your second skin in a manner that was almost lost to the tsunami of fast fashion. Regenerating your wardrobe with your own two hands is an act that gives the planet an opportunity to rest and repair itself.”
—Rebecca Burgess, founder of Fibershed and author of Harvesting Color

“This is a heartwarming tribute to generations before us as much as it is a practical and mindful toolkit for learning to repair our belongings. A patch we mend into our favorite jeans becomes a thoughtful story about what we value.”
—Andrea Marie Sanders, meditation teacher and artist

Nina and Sonya Montenegro are illustrators, printmakers, menders, quilters, beekeepers, and gardeners. In 2013, they founded The Far Woods, a creative collaboration making artwork that seeks to contribute to a cultural shift in which there is a land ethic, reverence for nature, rejection of the dominant throw-away mentality, and direct connection to where our food and the things we use come from. Many of their artworks serve as educational tools, and their practice crosses disciplines to work toward an ecologically viable and socially just future. Their studio is situated on an organic farm just outside of Portland, Oregon.

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