An Instagram artist shared a hack to repair a cat-damaged couch using woven cotton rope to show new things aren't always better

• A fiber artist shared their weaving hack for repairing a cat-scratched couch.
• The Instagrammer received over 140,000 likes in a series of posts about the project.

An artist's handmade solution to their cat-damaged couch has gone viral on Instagram, as viewers were blown away by the aesthetically pleasing hack.

On April 26, Sarah Neubert, an artist from Northern Colorado who specializes in weaving and fiber work, shared an Instagram post that showed a close-up of the scratched-up sofa, with thin strands of fabric running in vertical lines across the damage.

In the caption they wrote that their cats were ruining the couch and they'd decided to weave patches over the ripped parts. "Stay tuned to see whether this is my best or worst idea," they added alongside the upload, which received a modest 1,000 likes.

Plenty of viewers did just that, as two days later over 130,000 people liked Neubert's follow-up post, where they shared a progress update on the project. The image showed a series of different colored patches that had been added, which interlinked halfway up the sofa. In the caption, Neubert wrote they had used cotton rope in the hopes it might "take the cats more than 2 minutes to shred it."

Over 900 people commented on the post, many of which complimented the artist on how good it looked already, while others asked if Neubert could post a how-to so they could do the same with their own scuffed furniture.

In fact, Neubert appeared to receive so many requests they later edited the caption and wrote, "since y'all are so excited about this, I'm going to make a tutorial!" In an update on May 2, Neubert wrote their tutorial "Woven Mending 101" was in the works.

Two days later, Neubert posted a video revealing the finished result of the restoration, which showed the scratches had been completely covered by a neat and colorful arrangement of woven cotton. At the end of the upload, which received over 8,900 likes, the artist also held a cat which appeared to be one of the culprits of the original damage, while the song "Merry Mending" by Nina Simone could be heard in the background.

In a lengthy caption alongside the post, Neubert wrote they loved mending things and even get thrilled when something rips. "Things, just like people, have more soul when they've been through a lot. And I like the things around me to have soul," they wrote.

They also pushed back on the idea that something being new automatically equates to being better, and encouraged people to mend items if they could, although they also acknowledged "having the time to mend things is a major privilege that we should all be mindful of."

Almost 200 people commented on the post to applaud the finished effect, as well as Neubert's stance on fixing old items instead of simply replacing them with something new.

Thrifty, homemade hacks don't always go down so well online. In March, a TikToker who goes by @Loopylinzi received 2.7 million views when they painted their light-colored carpet black, dividing opinion among viewers.

Sarah Neubert has 29,000 followers on Instagram where they post their fiber art projects and installations. They did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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