Hi - and welcome to my new blog! If you're subscribed to my newsletter then you'll know that I've been excited to get this element of the website up and running. I’ve had an itch recently for a more traditional blog format that you just don’t get with Instagram / social media, so I'm looking forward to having this space for monthly repair round ups and other ramblings.
Back in May/June I worked on some repairs for TOAST as part of their renewal programme and these two were some of my favourite to work on. The orange scarf had several holes caused by an excitable puppy so I used a mixture of swiss darning for the smaller areas of damage and then some larger darned patches for the bigger holes. I love how colourful this one is! This cardigan had an elbow hole in need of reinforcement as well as an underarm hole in need of a more subtle repair. The customer had chosen blues and greens for the elbow patch which I think works really well with the charcoal grey cashmere.
At the beginning of July I worked on this commission that was to be (re)gifted to its owner as a birthday present. How cool is that?! I loved hearing about how cherished this top was and being reminded how important it is to choose to repair the pieces you love rather than to default to discarding and buying new. There were so many little snags and holes to this merino wool top so I started out with some reinforcement stitches before I began darning. I ended up with two large darned patches in colours to match the stripes on the top and create a vibrant checked pattern.
I also got to mend something of my own a few weeks ago - the broken belt loop on these jeans - and there's a new video over on YouTube showing you how I repaired them.
I bought them from a vintage clothes stall about 4 years ago and they were already well worn in, so I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd be mending them! They’re definitely one of my favourite pairs so I love the thought of what they’ll look like in a few years once I’ve repaired them even more.