Kate Sekules

And we are already back 💐With another round of Darn It! at Textile Arts Center @textileartscenter ~ How lucky to have two within one month (thank U easter) come one come all to mend some spring silks with us @darnit.club 🪡🧵 Hosted by yours truly (@martinacox_ ), @visiblemend and @blackgirlssew ~~~~~ All levels/sewing experience welcome, all materials provided, just bring yourself and an item in need of mending ••• Tickets linked in Bio 🎟️ ••• Poster image from one of my mends from last month x

We had so much fun hosting our first workshop last week, “Menditation: A Prayer for Mending,” with special guest Kate Sekules @visiblemend ! Kate is a researcher, educator, and author whose work centers on the history and theory of mending as both practice and philosophy. We’re so grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with her on this special gathering. Thank you to everyone who joined us! @prattfashion @_mor_studio_

In a single-use culture, mending is an act of resistance 🪡 And Kate Sekules @visiblemend knows that better than anyone. A master mender, academic, and author, she has been a cherished collaborator throughout Custom Collaborative's history, including as a regular guest instructor for our Training Institute. This Earth Day 🌎 Kate joins our CEO Ngozi Okaro to discuss the state of sustainable fashion, then rolls up her sleeves for a hands-on mending workshop. Whether you’re a darning pro or total novice, you'll leave with new skills and a free mending kit to keep practicing all year long. And we’ll even be raffling off a SIGNED copy of Kate’s book (swipe to the end!) Grab your tickets 🎟 link in bio!

YOU'RE INVITED to an Earth Day event that centers community, fashion, and what you can do to contribute to a more circular economy! The acclaimed Kate Sekules will join our CEO, Ngozi Okaro, for a conversation about what fashion (and life!) looks like when we center care instead of consumption. Then you'll put those values into practice with a hands-on mending workshop. We'll cover the materials, and you'll walk away with new skills and a free mending kit to help you tap into this therapeutic practice long after the night is over. 📅 Wed. April 22 ⏰ 5-7:30 PM 📍The Garment District 🎟️ Get your tickets at the bio link!

BIG FINISH! The World's Biggest Mendathon... ON A BOAT! A day late but this is not an April Fool's, repeat, this is real. July 11th 3-6pm I am co-captaining the Manhattan II with Hekima Hapa of @blackgirlssew -- we are sailing 400 menders past Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, etc, with guests & surprises & games & snacks & drinks & who knows--it's going to be the best and mendiest day ever. Tickets will be up soon. Ask us anything, send your ideas --what do you want in a mend cruise? Are you in? We're going for the mendathon world record (but not those beer ppl. They didn't like it). AND IMPORTANTLY: Thank you thank you thank you for MendMarching! I fear whatever has happened here agorithmically and tagwise, it is not working for us, not being part of the Metapayola system, and also I am not reaching you, wherever you are. I am, demonstrably, shrinking. So be it. I wholeheartedly believe in things happening out here --doing things with people and hands in rooms. Or yachts. Save the date, 7/11, come bring your holes and launch the--let's rename her. Thoughts? #MendMarchBigFinish #mendmarchtogether #mendmarch2026 #mendmarch #visiblemending #mending #cruiselife #shipshape #mendathon

And we are back next month with another Darn it! Scandal! it’s on the SECOND sunday this month due to Holiday weekend. 🎟️Link in Bio for Tix! 🎟️ Hosted by yours truly, Hekima Hapa @blackgirlssew and Kate Sekules @visiblemend at the Textile Arts Center @textileartscenter in Brooklyn 🪡 All levels welcome, all materials provided, just bring yourself and an item in need of a little mending 🧶 RSVP LINK IN BIO XO!!!! Iconique Poster Image courtesy of @bella.b_b

Mending is close to my HEART obvs, my #mendmarchheart and as for #MendMarchEmbroidery --it's all EMBROIDERY! I did this greasytee vid in 2019 for my MEND! book and never posted it because it's so boring. But if you wanted to see chain stitch done slow, here you go. It is embroidery! In further propaganda, I did a talk at the Royal School of Needlework called Mending as Embroidery: A history of beautiful stitch repair (link to recording in bio). Also am currently wriiting chapter about darning as embroidery. But the greasytee outlining stains idea, this was new 7 years ago, and is way old hat now. I guess that's a good thing. What do you think though? Is mending embroidery? And thank you for mendmarching! Are you finding each other? It's nearly done! I don't think I'm in many feeds but that's my fault; it does feel a bit weird though, not gonna lie #MendMarchWeird #MendMarchEmbroidery #mendmarch2026 #mendmarch #visiblemending #mending #mend

#MendMarchette news I forgot to say. Our art darning collab project is on a FIVE-museum, THREE-year UK tour. I thought I'd posted this! But oops I'd only emailed the #SockSisters Who they, you ask? WELL. I accidentally own a lifetime of pre-WWII holey socks, a precious archive kept intact for 50 years by Louis Haase's widow, Estella. Having been artdarned by 24 talented menders --Sock Sisters--in 9 countries, they were in Transformations: Contemporary Artists @winterthurmuse in 2024 My June 10 2024 post has ALL the socks (swipe twice) (the good news about scrolling backwards is I don't post much :) then Jan 12 is the whole story in < 1 min, and in between, March 7 more close ups --& the @hapticandhue interview is still linked in my bio. I'm sorry for failure to post @derbymuseums debut, which just closed --see it here. The show "Human Natures The way we live in the world we made" is aimed at kids, and is SO GREAT, immersive & interactive, engaging, playful, not didactic, but everyone comes out with a fresh resolve to live lightly on the earth. And to darn. The sched is below. I'm going to try to go to Manchester--haven't been back since I was at Uni there & in band! The still in grid is everyone's fave monster sock by @annabelle._.cooke Socks UK Tour Schedule @mcrmuseum Manchester, April 22nd to October @newcastlemuseum Feb to Sept 2027 @hornimanmuseumgardens London, Oct '27 to April '28 @norwichcastle Museum from June 2028 #mendmarch2026 #mendmarchmixed #mixedsocks #socks #mendmarchdarned #mendmarchtogether #mendmarch #manchester #derby #newcastle #norwich

#MendMarch2026 is heading to a close, menders! I have (22) MIXED feelings about this, because I feel you have been (23) LET DOWN by she who (24) LINED UP the prompts! TBH I was always heading in that (25) DIRECTION and, knowing I was short of time, #MendMarchette was my (26) PRECISION solution for dealing with it. Anyway, YOUR mends are magnificent, your (27) EMBROIDERY (all mends are embroidery) is such (28) SANCTUARY, I love to (29) HEAR from you and see all your (30) FIRE 🔥 mends leading up to the (31) BIG FINISH FWIW here are the barely functioning but still sort of fun #microtags for the rest of #mendmarch for your click-thru convenience xo Kate 22 #MendMarchMIXED 23 #MendMarchletdown 24 #MendMarchlinedup 25 #MendMarchdirection 26 #MendMarchprecision 27 #MendMarchembroidery 28 #MendMarchsanctuary 29 #MendMarchhear 30 #MendMarchfire 31 #MendMarchBIGFINISH #alwaysbemending #visiblemending #mend

#MendMarchMendspiration --Socks! Some of mine and lots of yours, all #MendMarch2026 Did you notice the tag pollution? I really want to know: did you? Is it bothering? I find it bothering. Grr. In better news, here are... 1 @kgunselman fabulously multidarned soles, 2 @z_h_a_n_n_a_a_z Eye heel or heeleye I'm not sure 3 @nestnebula demoing sockpatch methodology 4 @selinaam05 dealing gorgeously with pesky ends 5. @therethatsbetter_ with the first part of the brilliant FUICE sock assemblage (please go see Margit's March 1 post, I peed self. Screenshot at end) 6 @morrissews The sheep knits sock for Sean the Sheep j'adore 7 @annabelle._.cooke and a whole year of sockdarns 8 @stoppesopp proving eyedarns popular this year 9 Sweet heelstar by @thescifisiren 10 A gorge pair by @bobbins126 11 Another gorge pair by @joackroyd_uk 12 And another by @deliadear 13... with which she kicked off #Mendmarch ... 14 @sanaje_remake kicking up her heels 15 @shanculkeen conquering the Swiss darn 16 @stitchesandseeds Ditto over a hole Thank you for persisting & posting! I'm lovng and Liking despite my slower #MendMarchette habit. #iloveyou #mendmarchtogether #mendmarch #mending #visiblemending

#MendMarch2026 How can it be Week 3 already? MENDSPIRATION is what I'm suggesting for Sunday 15th and all week for the #MendMarchette crew (me, I am). If you're seeing this for the first time, do join in! Beginners are super welcome. Scroll back a bit at visiblemend HQ for all the prompts and the how-to. Believe it or not, this is the ONLY repeat prompt from all the 11 years of mendmonths, used once in 2019! Go with whatever it means to you, and there's so much out there, it'll keep you going all week. The rest are still veering to the doomy, because news, though, as ever, there are double sewing meanings. I'm particularly fond of fast and loose as a mend methodology. I wondered if maybe SOMEone is dealing with actual guano of bats. As for tagging --sheesh IDK, microtags are sort of working, but it's also completely random. I reckon keep slapping any and all tags on your mends--full roster is below for click through convenience. See you in the posts! XxxKate Monday 16th #MendMarchSensation Tues 17th #MendMarchDisastrous Weds 18th #MendMarchFastandLoose Thurs 19th #MendMarchCrapshoot Fri 20th #MendMarchBatshit Sat 21st #MendMarchAllOut #mendmarch #Visiblemending #Mending #mend

Nice clout for #mendmarchiceout & I mean this latest patch batch on the silk pant butt --swipe for less rude views -- is not worthy of the magnificence I'm seeing in #mendmarch2026 sorrryyy! I'm loving your mends VERY MUCH thank you for persisting through the jungle of sponsored & suggested posts & indeed despicable world events. I'm playing permanent catch up but loving it --all the microtags are like little jewel boxes of mendeliciousness or I mean chocolate boxes of gorgeous mend jewels YUM #embellishmending #mending #visiblemending #mendmarchniceclout #iceout