Tag Archives: visible mending

Christmas mending

This was a handsewing project I had on the go in December to offset ‘Christmas stress’. This padded check shirt is a very old one of my husbands, it’s in quite good condition but the top layer of fabric on the elbows had worn away exposing the wadding underneath. I really wanted to try Sashiko as part of the mend – bought Sashiko templates (Stencil Stash on Etsy) and Prym Aqua-Trickmarker white water erasable pen (jaycotts.co.uk), I already had a Gütermann Sulky colour 4007 thread which is red/blue space dyed.

The elbow hole was patched with denim (from old jeans), slip stitching the edges. The squishy padded fabric made marking the fabric a bit tricky, especially as the pen ink is invisible at first, taking a couple of minutes to appear. Following the Sashiko pattern was easy to do and enjoyable. To be honest I had hoped the space dyed thread would produce a more interesting effect, it was an experiment, but I still like it a lot …. now for the other sleeve.

Mend: Hiding holes with embroidered badges

Embroidery to cover holes
using fusible cotton to back the damaged cloth

This lovely linen shirt was snagged by rose thorns, lots of holes and tearing. Inspired by 1960’s Mod parka badges and patches I marked out the shapes in pencil and used split stitch to fill in the shapes. Before sewing, I ironed fusible cotton interfacing on to the reverse side of the holes, giving a backing to sew into. Using embroidery hoops gives a flat taut surface, which helps to keep the stitching flat and not too tight. This was a bit of a lengthy repair but very happy with the result. A shirt full of holes turned into a new unique shirt!

Decorative mending – Man’s shorts

The twill fabric on the pocket and hem edges had worn away, they were frayed and holey. There were also tears at stress points at the ends of the pockets, these were patched with green twill fabric. I used embroidery thread to sew over the frayed parts of the edges, really enjoying arranging the blocks of colour. James loved it so much he wore the shorts to a party the next day!

Dressing Gown Mend

This decorative visible mend, which I did over Christmas, has given my much loved old dressing gown a new lease of life! I’m rather ashamed to have been wearing it in such a state, the collar was badly frayed and worn, as were the cuffs. Luckily I already had everything I needed to fix it, lovely printed cotton fabric and stripe cotton tape both from The Knitting & Stitching Show a few years ago, and oddments of embroidery thread.

To keep some body to the collar I stitched all the broken threads flat to form a firm base, before pinning the cotton patch over the top and hand sewing with a tiny slip stitches. For the decorative stitching on the patch I chose red and yellow embroidery thread (spliting off 2 strands) matching the colours of the stripe tape. The tape was pinned to the collar seam and tacked it in place and I used red embroidery thread to sew a running stitch all the way round.

Decorative mending tutorial

I’m delighted to have a ‘decorative mending’ tutorial published at From Britain With Love here is a link to it frombritainwithlove.com/easy-visible-mending-with-sequins . From Britain With Love is a blog and directory of ethical UK makers, growers and creatives.

This year two of my favourite cardigans emerged from Winter storage full of moth holes. In years gone by one of them would have been binned but now I see the damage as a creative challenge, thinking of ways to give them a new lease of life.

I disguised the damage with clusters of sequins, and in the process gave them a really unique and personal touch. I was really keen to share this decorative mending idea, because it needs so little sewing knowledge but looks amazing!