As an experienced mender, I often forget that repair can be mystical and intimidating to the uninitiated. This is why I was so happy that Elizabeth, new to mending, agreed to host the Mending Migration. I was so inspired to see how learning to mend helped Elizabeth to tone down her inner self-critic and just dive in: as Elizabeth put it, “what’s the worst that can happen?”
I’m excited for you to read Elizabeth’s story and hope that you find a message in it that inspires you, or that you can pass on to someone else in your life.
-elysha
I have a tendency to plan and overthink a lot until I almost do nothing at all. I worry about doing a bad job. The most important thing I’ve learned by looking at other people’s mending is to just get started. After all, what’s the worst that can happen? ---Elizabeth
I'm Elizabeth. I'd never mended anything in my life until a few weeks ago.
I live near Bath, in England. My children are fully grown, so now it’s just my husband, me, our dog and two cats. I’ve always had the urge to be creative and have experimented with sewing. I’ve become more confident over the last 3 or 4 years.
I get attached to things and find it hard to let go of them. I have a well-loved pair of jeans that I know are getting quite thin in places. I was getting a bit worried about what would happen when a hole inevitably appears, but now I’m almost looking forward to it.
My husband gets attached to things too. He has a hat he wears for dog walking that had developed several holes and a large rip. The hat comes with a lifetime guarantee, but the manufacturer said he’d have to send the hat back, cut in half, before they’d send a replacement. He couldn’t bear to do that to his hat!
Until recently, I would never have contemplated trying to fix a hat. However, I had some waterproof fabric left over from a bag making project and I managed to patch the holes with that. The fabric doesn’t match the hat at all, but it doesn’t matter as the patched holes are now a feature that shows the hat was too loved to give up on.
[elysha: tragically this isn't Elizabeth's husband's hat, but it is a sweet little patch on a bike pannier from the same afternoon mending in the park as below!]
Since then, I’ve fixed a large split in his walking shorts too. I had another perfect scrap of fabric for that. Those shorts would definitely have been thrown away this time last year.
Now that I’ve overcome my fear of mending, I think I will find it very relaxing.
I fixed the hat while sitting on the settee in the evening watching some TV with my husband. It was nice to be able to do that while we sat together, rather than being in another room with a sewing machine.
[elysha here: this image wasn't taken in front of a TV, but mending in the park is, likewise, a lovely way to pass an afternoon]
I had no darning experience before receiving the Swift Darning Loom.
I’d watched a lot of videos of people using the loom and was very keen to give it a try.
I found the videos extremely useful. They’re much easier to follow than written instructions or just pictures. It’s helpful to hear someone talking through their thought process as they’re showing what to do.
My main issue was finding something that needed darning. I hadn’t got many things with holes in. I thought I had a jumper of my husband’s that had developed a hole in the elbow but discovered it had been thrown away.
I’d made a dress a few years ago that was more of a wearable toile. I didn’t like the fabric (a dull, grey) and planned to only wear it around the house. However, in hot weather it’s turned out to be a useful dress to have and I’ve worn it a lot. It wasn’t well made, though. I’d made a mistake constructing the inseam pockets and holes were developing around these.
I thought these holes would be ideal to darn with the loom, but it was quite tricky to get the surface flat enough because of where the holes were. I procrastinated a lot about what yarn to use. I wasn’t sure what weight was needed. It would be helpful to have more instruction on this.
[elysha here: I get this question a lot! I wrote a blog showing some examples of yarn weights that I like to use, though a part 2 or a video is certainly in order!]
I decided to just get started.
The first darn was quite loose, and I got a bit confused as I’d used the same colour thread for both the warp and the weft. It didn’t matter, though. The hole was patched and I quite liked the look of the mend.
I persevered and started again on another hole on the same dress, but this time used a different colour for the warp and the weft. I found this much easier to visualise. I could see that my weaving was improving as I went along.
