#swiss darning

[lailedcat]

Think I got the hang of mending cables!

[narwhalsdisguised]

Found this beautiful lamb's wool Lyle & Scott sweater vest at a flea market last weekend! Been wanting a sweater vest for a while and finding one in the colours of the trans pride flag was just perfect.

It had a few holes so I decided to try out Swiss darning, and I think it came out pretty well! I couldn't find any info online about Swiss darning on ribbing, though, so I'm not sure if that's even possible (please let me know if you know!), so the holes in the ribbing are fine with regular darning.

[letstryartemy]

I have a curse where I hate t-shirts, graphic tees especially. But I still wanna sport my fav viddy games so uhhh...

I'll take matters into my own hands.

Custom patho sweater >::)

(100% Cotton. Made by swiss darning. NFS)

[heavymead0w]

Swiss darning stars on this crazy green cashmere hoodie I got for like $3 at value world when I was 19

[forestdeeplavender]

Had some wool socks that desperately needed mending after much wear & too little care. But I had never done darning before & that led to them waiting a year in a drawer before I could work up the nerve.

I learned a new skill; Swiss darning. Which was not as hard as it looked at first & I'm pleased with how my darning turned out. ^^ It was such peaceful work & just what I needed before Yule.

If you need a sign to try something you think is too hard: this is it. All you can do is what you can & the result might be different than you think.

[basketofmooneggs]

Re-doing my own mend:

I love this thrifted wool sweater and I recently noticed a new hole in the shoulder seam opposite this hole, so I decided to redo this mend and fix that new hole.

Originally, as shown in the first picture, I sewed up this small hole with a matching color of cotton embroidery floss. However, the cotton has stayed extremely shiny so the mend wasn't even invisible and the knot of thread was occasionally uncomfortable to lean on.

I carefully unpicked the cotton thread and mended the hole again. This time I used white wool and swiss darning to cover the hole and rebuild the missing knit fabric. It was my first time doing swiss darning and I'm pretty proud even though I did it a bit wonky.

To add to the #aesthetic, I decided to frame the white darning square in a bit of feather stitch and a little leaf. I wanted to do more leaves but that stitch (fishbone, I think) is not easy to do on knits, so I did some French knots instead and I love how it turned out.

I'm much happier with this highly visible mend than I ever was with the semi-invisible mend. However, the original mend served me well for about five years and my skills have really improved since then. I do not regret either choice. I really cherish this sweater.

[swallowsummer]

Why is this so addictive?

[janerhoadesart]

I absolutely love these socks. However, it only took a few months to wear a hole in the toe.

But luckily catching a worn spot before it turns into a hole is a much easier mend with Swiss darning! With some scrap sock yarn, I just followed the existing threads in the worn spot to “re-knit” the area.

Mending what you have is always more sustainable and cheaper than simply throwing them away and getting new ones. Especially with hand knit socks, I want to preserve them as long as possible!