logo: black background, grey stitch lines in a square, grey "MENDING" in condensed font, gold stitched "BLOC" w/ thread & needle

mending bloc

We are a mutual aid group in Portland, Oregon.We mend clothes and other things for the community, and distribute mending kits, patches & zines to help people mend their own stuff, and also make and distribute other fabric-based things that are helpful to others.We do our small part in the fight against the evils of capitalism to help people use what they already have and empower them to help themselves and others to mend, make, and remove the need to buy as much as possible!

about mending bloc

We formed in fall 2020 after seeing a street medic on twitter saying they'd ripped multiple pairs of jeans while running from cops in the streets of Portland. We realized we could put our sewing skills to use offering to mend things for the protest community.After getting set up with twitter and instagram accounts and attending some protests with a little table, we learned of another need and we designed a sewing pattern for balaclavas. Anyone with a sewing machine can make one for themselves, or people can give us t-shirts and we will turn them into balaclavas for them or to donate out to anyone in need. (Here's a direct link to the pattern PDF.)We began attending more mutual aid focused events, doing on-the-spot mends on clothes, sleeping bags, gloves, bags, etc, and taking items home to our machines. We also offer pronoun pins at events.In 2021 we started expanding by printing patches, making patch-sewing kits with a How to Sew on a Patch mini-zine, and then making bigger mending kits with a bigger Do It Yourself Mending zine. Those links will go to twitter posts with all the zine page images (with alt) to view on your screen. Here are direct links to the printable patch sewing zine, and the printable mending zine, which you are welcome to print and distribute freely! And here's a pdf file of the mending zine as an ebook.We now distribute mending kits to unhoused communities and attend community and mutual aid events with our table of patches and kits regularly. In late spring/summer 2021 we began hosting "Mend Together with Mending Bloc" events where we mend and also teach mending skills to the community; we've since been hosting these events monthly throughout the nice-weather season—you can see if one is happening soon on our instagram or twitter pages.We also make and distribute cooling scarves for the people of Portland each summer—learn more about those (including how to make them) here. We do some winter sewing/mending projects as well, such as mending tents, sleeping bags, tarps, and sewing blankets, etc.

mending bloc's stuff

get involved with mending bloc

If you're in Portland:
If you like to sew/mend and are interested in becoming a mending bloc member, all we require is that we meet in person. Send a DM/email if you want and/or just come find us at an event and introduce yourself and we can add you to our signal group!If you want to just learn some mending skills from us, find us at an event to pick up a mending kit, or come to a Mend Together with Mending Bloc event (see instagram to learn when they are happening) and we can give you one-on-one help! (Also, see the last page of our mending zine for some resources that can get you started.)If you are involved with an org or community that would like mending kits or zines donated, please reach out and we're happy to help!If you would just like our help mending something for you, reach out via DM or email and we'll gladly take your item and mend it for you!If you're outside of Portland:
It would be amazing if you started your own mending bloc in your city or town! Please feel free to print out our zines to give away. There is a mending bloc in SLC, and a group in Bellingham, WA which does mending services. If you start one please let us know and we'll post about you!Donations:
We are strictly mutual aid with very little material cost so we do not take donations. Our patches are printed on reclaimed/donated/thrifted fabrics. If you'd like to donate fabric that would work for patches, or thread or needles for mending kits, we will gladly take those items! We don't collect money donations because we just don't need money to do what we do, but we highly encourage you to instead donate to other mutual aid groups/orgs/people who DO need money to do what they do (which is most of them!).

cooling scarf project

After the deadly heat wave of June 2021, we learned about these cooling scarves which can help keep people a bit cool for hours by keeping the neck wet, as water beads slowly release water.We developed our own method of making them as easily as possible, both to whip up as many as we can to get them into the hands of people in our community, and to make it a doable project even for those with practically no sewing experience. All you need is a basic sewing machine!We have instructions for anyone to make their own anywhere, with their own materials, and we also distribute kits locally (with fabric and water beads) to anyone with a sewing machine.If you are local and would like a kit to sew some, reach out via DM or email or find us at our next event. (You can just take supplies to make them for anyone and distribute them yourself, or you can make them and give them back to us and we can handle distribution, your choice!)What You NeedBasic woven cotton fabric—quilting cotton works great, or thrifted/old sheets as long as they are not too thin and/or worn out. Plus a sewing machine for straight stitch, and thread.Water Beads or Water Crystals
We've done a bunch of testing and found that our instructions will work with these three options:- AquaGems brand beads, which can be bought in bulk on ebay (4lbs for $28 which should be enough for many hundreds of scarves; don't get jumbo)- Orbeez brand beads, which can be found more easily in much smaller quantities. A bag of 25000 beads costs approx $12 on ebay, and weighs about 1/4lb so that costs approx seven times as much as the bulk quantity of AquaGems. But it's a good option for if you need a smaller quantity! A small bag of 5000 water beads should be enough to make about a dozen scarves.- Miracle-Gro brand Water Storing Crystals, which can be found in 12oz bags for around $10 online or in some garden stores, etc. This bag should be enough for almost 300 scarves. Be sure to get this specific brand, as we've tested other "water crystals" and ended up with very slimy scarves!!Beads vs. CrystalsWater Beads:
- Have a satisfying orb shape which feels kinda cool inside the scarf.
- Take 6+ hours of soaking to reach full size. But stays hydrated a VERY long time (multiple days)!
- Might work better over a long time, drying out and re-soaking, but we haven't tested that much.Water Crystals:
- Create a thick kind of gel inside the scarf which works great but some may not like the feel of as much.
- Only takes about 2 hours to fully hydrate! But might dehydrate faster than beads.
- Might get weird if used over and over, and also might get slimy if scarf is overfilled or squeezed... we haven't experienced the recommended brand getting slimy but we also haven't used it over and over yet.If using a different brand of water beads/crystals, be sure do a test to figure out the quantity of dry beads you need per scarf, and make sure they work before making a big batch! Keep in mind that overfilling can be worse than underfilling, as beads/crystals can burst and seep through fabric!

Make the ScarvesThe simplified instructions are:- Cut a strip of woven cotton fabric exactly 4.5" wide by around 42" long.- Fold it lengthwise with wrong side out and sew it together along the long edge with 1/4" seam allowance to make it a tube, then turn the tube right side out.- Sew one line across the tube 8" from the center.- From the other side, pour 1/4 tsp of dry water beads or crystals into the tube (this seems like a VERY small amount but trust us!).- Sew another line across the tube 16" from the first line (8" from the center on the other side), trapping the water beads in this 16" center pocket.- Make the two ends into points by cutting diagonal lines, then turn the edges in.- Sew along each diagonal edge then continue sewing (top-stitching) along the seamed edge to the bead pocket line on each side.- Soak in water until beads/crystals are filled with water (6+ hours for beads, or around 2 hours for crystals).Here is the complete instructions in zine form with illustrations:

Click here for a printable file of the above instructions. Print out fit to page, then fold in half and in half again to make it into a booklet. Distribute to others freely!

If you want to distribute kits in your area, you can download a PDF here with all of our kit materials and instructions for making kits.

Below are a couple of short (no-sound) videos to take you through the process of making a scarf! You can also find these on twitter here! and in our Cooling Scarf instagram story highlight.

And this one is just for if you're using fat quarter sized fabric to make your scarves:

And below is a longer, more detailed video tutorial!(Note that all these videos above and below are specific to the kind of water beads we use, so if you're using a different kind be sure to see the full instructions above!)

Lastly, below is the original version of the instructions for our kits, specifically for fat quarter sized pieces of fabric. See twitter here or instagram here for complete alt text. Use this for turning a fat quarter into two scarves:

contact mending bloc

Check our instagram to learn if we have any events coming up.Send us a direct message there or email our protonmail (icons below) to inquire about mending services, getting kits or zines from us, or anything else we might be able to help you with!