Robes de Coeur
  • Blog
  • Quilting
  • Clothing
    • Menswear
    • Womenswear >
      • Self-Made Patterns
      • Commercial Patterns
    • Hats
    • Miscellany
  • About
  • Blog
  • Quilting
  • Clothing
    • Menswear
    • Womenswear >
      • Self-Made Patterns
      • Commercial Patterns
    • Hats
    • Miscellany
  • About

A Darn with Two Techniques

12/18/2017

0 Comments

 
I recently darned a sweatshirt for a friend.  Since I've already shown how I darn using Single Corded Brussels stitch, bridging the hole by throwing my thread across and then covering that thread with buttonhole stitches on the way back, I decided this time to use the more basic Single Brussels stitch, no cording, to show you something different.  However, the Single Brussels stitch is lighter than Single Corded Brussels, so how would I fill the hole with something approximating the weight of the rest of the fabric?  I decided on needle weaving.  So now I have two techniques to show you: Single Brussels stitch being used to darn, and needle weaving.  You can darn with needle weaving alone, but in this example I do a very slip-shod job of it only to bulk up for my serious darn, which is the Single Brussels stitch. 
Picture
Here is the hole I have to work on.  It's on the back shoulder of a well-loved sweatshirt.  (Why do shirts so often get holes on the back shoulder?  What is wearing them out there?)  Anyway, I select two gray threads, but do most of the project with the darker one (on the yellow spool).  The black thing under the hole is an electronics case, giving me a clearer picture of the hole and a little stability while I work on it. 
The first step is to thread my needle with the darker gray thread and double it.  I like doubled thread for darning because it's thicker (I'm only using all-purpose thread, which is quite thin!), and because I'm less likely to lose the needle that way.  No need to tie a knot: I'll be covering all my stitches with each other!  I sew a rough circle around the hole and the weakened areas adjacent.  It's not necessary to outline; it's just helpful to keep from going astray.  Then, working in vertical lines that follow the knitted ribbing of the sweatshirt, I start doing Single Brussels stitch:
Picture
My first line of Single Brussels stitch covers the loose end of my thread.
Single Brussels stitch is a row of buttonhole stitches, then another one hanging off the first one.  In needlelace, the stitches are detached from the surrounding fabric, so each stitch has only the last stitch to hang onto.  But in this darn, I'm also putting the needle through the fabric in the back, thus tying my new needle-made fabric to the old fabric.  As long as there's fabric underneath, it's more like embroidery than needle lace. 

Once I get near the hole, I take a break from single Brussels to do some needle weaving.  From the pictures below, you can probably tell that needle weaving isn't my favorite task; I don't want to fuss with perfectionism as I try to do my over-under-over-under, so I just weave haphazardly through the threads without much attention.  I know that it will be covered up, and it's more important to have a nest of threads to sew on than to have that nest look pretty. 
Picture
Picture

Once the needle weaving is done, I continue doing Brussels stitch.  If you think one line of threads looks a little lighter than the rest, you are right... I do my needle weaving with the slightly lighter thread and don't notice until I started using it for the denser Brussels stitch!  So I switch back to the darker gray, which I think is a less conspicuous option for this sweatshirt. 

FINISHED

I am finished when the perimeter is filled.  I tie my thread off to a nearby stitch, then weave it in and out of the darn a few times before I cut its end. 
Picture
Outside view
Picture
Inside view

How long did it take?  About an hour.  I did it in the morning while I sat by the "happy light" to get some Vitamin D!  I took a wee break for lavender tea, so my total time was an hour and a half.  A good way to start a morning! 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Karen Roy

    Quilting, dressmaking, and history plied with the needle...

    Categories

    All
    1910's
    Alteration
    Antique
    Dyeing
    Embroidery
    General
    Hand Sewing
    History
    Lacemaking
    Mending
    Menswear
    Millinery
    Modern Elizabethan
    Musing
    Other Sewing
    Philippians 4:8
    Project Diary
    Quilting
    Regency
    Retro
    Self Made Pattern
    Self-made Pattern
    Terminology
    Victorian
    Vintage

    Blogs I Read

    The Dreamstress
    Male Pattern Boldness
    ​
    Lilacs & Lace
    Tom of Holland
    Fit for a Queen
    Line of Selvage
    Mainely Menswear
    Bernadette Banner

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017

    RSS Feed

Blog

Quilting

Clothing

About

Copyright Karen Roy
​© 2017-2022