Save your clothes by getting plastered
As we head into the double-dip and another freezing winter, the latest solution to updating your favourite cashmere jumper that you've found has a little moth hole is to cover it up with chic clothes plasters and moth patches.
More of a fancy embellishment than an invisible mend, these beautifully embroidered little iron-on patches shout "look at me, I'm worth mending" and are finding favour in the fashion industry as well as with hard-up parents who haven't the time or the talent to darn.
Jennie Maizels, a children's book illustrator, invented clothes plasters to save her daughters' stripy tights, which she couldn't sew without ruining them. Her Tattoo, Russian Doll and Robot patches, which cost from £2.99 a pair, are among her most popular designs and she's just brought out a "London" range in time for the Olympics, which includes a royal crown and Big Ben.
Graphic designer Suzi Warren, of Twisted Twee, designed her moth patches after discovering her entire woollies wardrobe had been eaten.
"I decided to make a virtue out of the holes and create a bespoke item," she told me. Her moth patches, which cost £5 for a pack of five, come in subtle shades of silvery grey and are based on real moths. They look brilliant on curtains and sofas too, or anything else that needs a statement patch-up.
In the same vein, she also sells pointing-finger patches to highlight stains, merit awards for non-achievement and fabric plaster patches.
Shabby moth-eaten clothes have never looked so chic.
