Ripped and torn pieces of clothing and footwear have a tendency to end up in the trash based on the assumption they've lost their worth and are beyond repair. But with a little ingenuity and creative flair, you might be able to whip those pieces back into shape and keep loving them for many more years.
One Redditor proved this by sharing a post in r/Visiblemending about fixing her son's leather boots that had ripped down the back.
"I don't have a leather needle, so I pre-punched the leather with a push pin, then proceeded to stitch," the original poster wrote in the caption. "I used waxed dental floss for the thread (since it's super strong). I also put craft glue over the rip once I was finished to give a little extra strength."
She went on to explain how she used Gorilla Tape to hold the boot in place while gluing it and made reinforcement stitches down the cross-stitching.
"We'll see how it holds up!" she wrote hopefully.
This DIY project is inspiring because it kept an otherwise perfectly good pair of boots out of the trash and on the feet of someone who loved them. The original poster shared in the comments that the boot ripped because it seemingly got caught on her son's dirt bike, and the leather was very thin in this part of the boot.
By making this genius fix, the mom avoided buying her son another costly pair of cowboy boots. Reducing unnecessary waste, even one boot at a time, can have an even larger impact on the planet, especially considering that most people throw away over 81 pounds of clothing every year. Organizations like GotSneakers can even accept outgrown sneakers and might even send you a check in return.
Followers of the r/Visiblemending subreddit swooned over this boot repair and were impressed at how well it turned out.
"Great idea, your stitches look great!" one Reddit user wrote in the comments.
"This is so cool!" commented a Redditor. "Looks very strong, and adding glue was so smart. I will definitely remember your post if I ever need to repair my boots."
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