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Hey everybody, it's Mariel.

I got a sewing machine for Christmas.

I haven't learned how to use it yet, but I am very excited about it.

Because I have all these items of clothing that could use a little tweak.

They don't fit quite right, or I just want to make them look a little different.

You know, take some creative license with them.

Of course, a sewing machine is a helpful tool,

but you don't actually need one to make adjustments to your clothes.

One of my colleagues here at NPR, Ravenna Canig,

has gotten really into something called visible mending.

It's a technique you can use when you're not worried about

concealing your stitching or having things look perfectly even. The whole point is to see the

hand sewing that can go into fixing a garment. When Ravenna originally reported this episode in

2023, she'd been doing visible mending for about a year. I've patched my jeans with ornate embroidery.

I've woven light green and lavender patches over holes the size of golf balls and a chunky evergreen sweater.

I've used baby blue thread to stitch up runs in a gray and black striped wool base layer.

And I've totally fallen in love with it. The creativity, the repetition of hand sewing,

which takes me out of my head and into my

hands, the rush of satisfaction I get every time I transform a holy garment into something I can

...