Still fixing the craptastic sweater from Madewell that has fallen apart after less than a season of wear!

Quick recap. I bought three of this sweater this fall. I have about five sweaters I rotate through to wear around the house most days (always over a long sleeve t-shirt), taking them off and putting them on over the course of the day as needed.⁠

All three of these sweaters started developing thin spots and holes right away. That’s because they are made out of shoddy material. Madewell calls it ‘recycled cashmere’ and claims it’s ‘better for the planet.’ In reality it’s lint held together with marketing, and it’s so fragile it falls apart after a few wears.

Well Made Clothes Do Not Fall Apart In Their First Season Of Wear.

I’ve been mending them (scroll back for those posts), in part because I want to make them last as long as I can, in part because I want to warn folks off this ‘recycled cashmere.’ It’s soft! But it pills horribly and turns to swiss cheese almost immediately. Don’t waste your money.

(Someone always asks, so no, I’m not reaching out to Madewell. First, they know! They use this material intentionally. It’s probably cheaper for them to buy (since it’s largely waste product). They tout its earth friendly qualities in their advertising copy, but anyone with the textile knowledge you’d expect from a clothing company should know it won’t last. Second, I’ve already spent enough time dealing with this and kinda don’t want to put in yet more time to contact them. And third, I tagged them in these posts. I’m easy to find if they want to reach me.)

The elbow holes here are huge (partly my fault for not mending them sooner, but wow is it kinda hard to find several hours to spend mending something that shouldn’t have worn out like this in the first place), so I’ve knit patches to just cover the whole area rather than working on the fabric itself (the fabric is so thin at this point that it would be hard to work on it anyway). And now I’m going to wash the patches (always wash them first, so if they change size in the wash, it happens before you sew them to your fabric) and stabilize the holes, then we’ll be back!