Hello! I’m Emily, I’m now based in Glasgow, Scotland and I repair clothes part-time for Toast and also on a freelance basis. I grew up in the South Lakes, England and moved to Scotland to study Textiles around 15 years ago and never wanted to leave.
Mending ought to be expressive
My first introduction to what mending could be and what it could look like in a way that excited me was Celia Pym. Just incredible and super expressive and she’s not afraid for mends to not be technically perfect.
I mend because it combines so many elements that I love and am passionate about - sustainability, textile craft, and design. It’s also a great way to get to know people, learn some of their story, and then be a tiny part of that.
A creative practice for my neurodivergent brain
I’ve dabbled in a lot of arts and crafts and mending was the one that’s really stuck. I think it really works for my neurodivergent brain to always work with a similar set of skills but be able to apply them in different ways depending on the garment, whether that’s just practically or creatively as well. I’ve never been able to knit (I can crochet a bit), so mending allows me to work with knitwear and wool - learning duplicate stitch/swiss darning was a mind-blowing game changer. There’s still a lot I’d like to play with there.
I have darned a lot in my 4.5 years mending for Toast but this was my first experience using a Darning Loom! I’d been wanting to try one for a long time so I jumped on the opportunity to be involved in this project. It took a minute to adjust my mind and hands for using the loom, and I generally need multiple forms of teaching to get to grips with things. Elysha’s guides in written and video form were perfect for me to slowly go through the process.
Using the Swift Darner to experiment
I used the loom for the two things I wanted to try - a classic woven darn on knitwear, and to have a play with using it as a mini loom. For the former, I had a pair of socks from a close friend of mine and I repaired them whilst staying with my brother back in Cumbria. It was tricky to get my head around having the spacing of the warp threads dictated for me by the loom, but I used it as a way to experiment. I normally use yarns or threads of the same weight for the entire darn, whereas for these socks I used a thin yarn for the warp and chunkier yarns for the weft - and I love how it turned out.
Flowers + litter =
For the weaving, I wanted to just head to my local park and see what I could forage to weave with. I used some thread in the wee pack that comes with the loom for the warp, and then used grasses, flowering plants and some plastic litter for weaving. It was tricky but a lot of fun. I had only recently moved to the area so it was nice for me to do something calm and creative in my new local park aka my extended shared garden.
