This is another post in the series of Basic Sewing Skills that I’ve been covering this year. Others in the series have included: how to thread a needle and make a knot here; how to sew on a button here; how to replace a broken zip on a backpack here, how to sew on a press-stud here; how to renew the elastic in a waistband here; how to mend a gap in a seam here; how to machine-stitch a trouser hem here; how to do a hand-stitched hem here how to shorten curtains here.
Here is today’s issue. A man’s black, machine-made knitted sweater in a fine wool yarn has a hole in it, on the inside of the sleeve, just near the cuff, as seen in the photo below. With my hand inside the sleeve, it is clear that the hole is uneven and some stitches are missing. The hole could have been made by moths but it looks more likely that the sleeve has been caught on something sharp which has made the hole. It’s a nice sweater and it would be a shame to throw it out, so here’s how I mended it.
The first task is to find a suitable yarn for mending. I found some black two-ply wool thread amongst some supplies for needlepoint and decided to use that for the mend. The needle has a large eye – for threading the wool – and a blunt point which will make darning easier.
1 Begin by threading your needle and putting a single knot at the end of your yarn. Coming up from the wrong side (so the knot is inside) do a circle of small running stitches around the outside of the damaged area. This will help to stabilise it.
2 Next, make a series of parallel vertical stitches from the top to the bottom of the damaged area. After you have made the stitch, do a small stitch across on the wrong side and begin the another long stitch next to the one you have just done. You want all the long stitches to lie on the surface of the garment (not loop down underneath).
3 Once your vertical stitches are in place, bring the thread through the sweater from the back, to the right side and use your needle to weave over, under, over, under your vertical threads, as shown below. Finish by pushing your needle through to the wrong side of the sweater,
4 For the next row, bring your needle up to the right side and this time, weave your needle under, over, under over, so the horizontal threads are doing the opposite to what they did in the row before. You can see in the photo below, how – in the completed mend – the woven surface has covered the area of the hole.
5 To finish off the mend, I sprayed the area with water…
6 …and then carefully pressed the area with an iron, using a cotton pressing cloth to protect the wool. In the photo of the sleeve laid out on my cutting mat, you can see the mended area, close to the cuff.
Let’s mend more and throw away less…
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