There is great skill in mending a hole so that you can no longer see it. Darning, patching, weaving can all be used to great effect. Many of us don’t have that skill, though. Yet we are mindful of the current call to recycle, upcycle and be less wasteful with our clothing when it needs fixing. The green theme of the Exhibition Road Festival 2021 was the perfect match for the workshop on visible mending that I ran in the Goethe Institute Library. Covid-safe (of course!), it invited people to meet in small groups throughout the day and try out some techniques on scraps of fabric with holes and blemishes on them.
The title image is a detail from a pair of black jeans with a hole in the knee. A piece of cotton fabric was placed behind the hole, held in place with some taking stitches (later removed) and then made more secure with running stitches, completed with some embroidery that picks up the print on the cotton.
These samples show ideas for knitted fabrics. Sometimes the hole is a feature!
Throughout our workshop day, we worked on a range of knitted and woven fabrics with holes or tears. The images show the range of ideas and skill levels employed. Below are pieces of denim embellished with other fabrics and stitching.
The running stitches are the easiest to execute; this is a technique used in sashiko mending/stitching. You can build up texture and colour with or without appliqué. Cut up a pair of old jeans instead of throwing them away and then try out some mending. Or make a phone case, a bag, a patch or a pocket out of your work. Add fabric pen marks. Please yourself!