Hi! My name’s Haley! I’m a cat-loving history nerd from Vancouver, Canada. In my free time I can be found playing table-top role playing games (like Dungeons & Dragons), embarking on research deep dives about anything that piques my interest, or exploring the beautiful coasts, forests, and mountains I’m surrounded by!
I’m inspired to mend as a personal act of rebellion against the consumerist culture we have, and specifically the culture around clothing.
I work in a vintage clothing store and I see first hand the amount of clothing there is already on this planet, the way the quality of available textiles and garment construction has fallen, and how the dissolution of textile unions preceded the rise in sweat shop clothing manufacturing practices and fast fashion brands.
It’s a relatively new concept, the idea that you can go out and buy a new shirt or pants anytime you rip a hole or wear through a seam.
There is currently enough clothing on the planet to clothe the next six generations, yet a large proportion of these garments are not made to last and often are made of synthetic materials that leech microplastics into our waterways each time they’re washed.
I mend so I can keep wearing thrifted pieces I love.
I mend to connect with the long tradition of using an item for its entire lifespan.
I mend, because I think it’s important to reduce my consumption where I can.
I mend because it makes me proud of the clothes that I wear.
Sewing and other skills relating to textiles like crochet, knitting, and embroidery are not as common to know as they used to be, and I think this is a shame because knowing these skills means your not as beholden to the systems that demand you buy something new when something old is just as good, it just needs a little love to continue being worn.
Patching a beloved vintage tropical button-up
This planned mend was what inspired me to sign up for the mending migration! It’s a vintage tropical print button up from Trinidad & Tobago that I thrifted from one of my favourite vintage stores in Gibsons, BC: Starlet Vintage.
When I got it, underneath the bottom button the placket had started to have a hole worn into it. I usually wear the shirt tucked in so it wasn’t a bother but I knew that if I didn’t do something to mend the hole, it would just get worse. It’s one of my favourite shirts to wear year round, in the winter I layer it over a black turtleneck and in the summer, I like to wear it with my black Lee shorts which I have also thrifted.
Where the hole was located required me to cut off two buttons so I could iron the placket so the base of the loom would fit better under the hole. As mentioned above, there were a few mistakes I made while mending this hole, mainly not setting the top of where I wanted the patch to end closer to the hooks, but I’m really happy with the mend!
I can be a bit obsessive in trying to make all my projects perfect so I’m attempting to embrace my mistakes and see them as what they are, which are lessons I’ve learned! I’m going to take what I learned on this patch and apply it to my flannel that has a few more holes needing to be patched.
Did you have other darning experience before receiving the Swift Darning Loom? How does that compare with loom darning?
Yes! My favourite flannel had unfortunately gotten feasted on by some cloth moths that had infested my house, so I tried darning the small holes rather than patching them. I found that darning (with or without a loom) had a learning curve that took some finagling to overcome. Mainly, tension. I don’t have a darning mushroom, so I was using an embroidery hoop to try my best to keep even tension while creating each patch which worked for some holes, but not for others, depending on where they were on the flannel.
How was your learning curve with getting to know the Swift Darning Loom technique? Is there anything you struggled with or had to learn on your own that was not covered in the instructions?
As mentioned, I found the toughest part of darning was keeping even tension. While the swift loom helped keep the warp threads in order and made it easier to keep track of the ‘over-under’ weaving of my wefts, keeping even tension and not accidentally pulling the warps together when punching down my wefts was something I struggled with on my first try. Fortunately, I knew I’d likely have some finessing to figure out with my technique, so my first go at darning a hole was on a part of a shirt on the button placket that usually isn’t visible as I tuck in this shirt whenever I wear it. I also forgot when setting up my warps to ensure that the top of where I wanted the patch to end was sitting below the hooks. Seeing as I didn’t want to continue the patch all the way up to the hooks, I wove wefts until I was happy, and slipped the shirt off the loom and gently pulled and adjusted the warp strings until the loops at the top were gone and secured it with a whip stitch at the tops and bottoms. It does the trick and I’m happy enough with what I did as a first try!
Haley also made these sweet little tapestries using the Swift Darning Loom! Thanks Haley!
