Mending

When my daughter's relatively new backpack (bought in early January of this year) developed some worn out spots on the bottom, she didn't want to spend more money to buy herself a new backpack.  Instead, she asked me if I could mend it for her, the way I had mended her previous backpack, which she bought when she was attending high school and used during most of her undergrad years (I mended all sides of that backpack and only stopped when the straps started to fray).

Worn Out Areas

Torn and Worn Spots

I looked through my fabric scraps and selected a piece of black fabric and a piece of denim fabric.  I used the denim fabric as a liner to reinforce the black fabric and sewed them together:

Black Fabric with Denim Fabric Reinforcement

Then, I pinned the reinforced fabric strip to the bottom of the backpack to cover the worn out spots and hand-sewed it in place:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabric Strip Pinned, Ready to be Sewn

Embroidered Pocket Added to Side

Since there was extra fabric, I sewed a pocket on the side and added a little hand embroidery to personalize it. 

The mending took a couple of hours to do.  The materials didn't cost anything since I had everything I needed.  Best of all, it extended the life of the backpack and saved daughter the $40 she would have had to spend to buy a new backpack.

I mended a few other items, too, for her - several clothing items that had ripped seams and frayed hems. 

Anyone else mend garments and other items to extend their use and save some money?