SDA Book Club: On Mending reviewed by Vivien Zepf

August 1, 2025

On Mending: Stories of damage and repair by Celia Pym

Mending has always seemed a chore to me. While I enjoy the meditative process of needlework, I’ve never achieved any sentiment other than a satisfactory, “Well, that’s done,” feeling when a hole has been repaired. After reading On Mending: Stories of damage and repair by Celia Pym, I realize I’ve been wrong to perceive mending in such a limited way. “Mending work,” writes Pym, “builds on what is left behind. It’s not replacing, or remaking, or cutting apart and putting back together, instead it is slow work that makes things better.”

Over the past fifteen years, Pym has mended more than five hundred garments and items. Some objects have come to her from family members; others belong to people she’s met at a “Mend” event she’s hosting. Each time, the owner of the object is asked what they’d like. Is the garment to be worn again or simply patched so it can be kept for the memories it evokes? “Mending other people’s cloth and clothes can be intimate work,” explains Pym. “A well-loved garment is like a second skin and can tell the story of the owner and people they’ve encountered and loved.” 

In her book, the author tells ten stories of renewed items to help express the value in extending the life of a textile. While not an instruction manual, Pym explains why she primarily restores garments with visible stitching and/or contrasting threads. She likens these visible spots of repair to scars on a body, which help tell the tale of a life. Pym talks of working with Bill Smith, whose orange sweater had been knitted by his late wife and who, Bill noted, “knew the shape of him in her fingers.” While Pym’s work salvaged a beloved jumper, she also created new woven patches that looked like splatters, speaking to Bill’s life as a painter and sculptor. 

Pym is also a nurse and she occasionally segues into the connections between mending textiles and mending bodies. In both pursuits, hands gain a sensitivity to distinguish damage. Interestingly, Pym worked with university students, leading the students in mending clothes as they studied anatomy in a cadaver lab, in part to discover how repairing cloth could inform the process of healing bodies. The university coursework helped the students discern meaning from the cues on bodies—thinness of skin, scars, tattoos—that could inform decisions about future patient care. Similarly, touching a damaged textile and inquiring about its past helped students make considerate choices for an item’s repair. Both processes require a tactile and thoughtful engagement which could lead to a more compassionate and mindful response. 

Most of the stories in the book are very touching and heartfelt. “Mending worn cloth,” notes Pym, “gets you close to another person’s skin.” Two stories diverge a bit: the repairs to actress Vivien Leigh’s dress and a marvelous gold cape from the Monte Carlo Opera House costume collection. I leave it to you to discover the details. 

On Mending has fewer than a hundred pages, including some beautiful photographs. But despite its relatively short length, the stories and observations have an emotional heft that, for me, provided provocative food for thought. I encourage you to grab a cup of tea and sit with the book for a while. I’m hoping you’ll discover that Pym’s book offers an opportunity for meaningful reflection on the scars you and your clothes carry, the stories they tell, and the simple, yet potentially cathartic, act of mending. 

–Vivien Zepf

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• Publisher: Quickthorn (buy it here)
• Date: May 2023
• ISBN: 9781912480586

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Do you have a recommendation for a recent fiber-related book you think should be included in SDA’s Book Club? Email SDA’s Managing Editor, Lauren Sinner, to let her know!