Father Mackenzie, Darning His Socks

 Yes, you can repair holes in sweaters! In fact, that’s exactly what Father Mackenzie was doing when the Beatle’s described him in Eleanor Rigby!

To quote Dictionary.com:

darn·ing:

/ˈdärniNG/

noun

noun: darning

1. the skill or activity of mending a hole in knitted material by interweaving yarn.

   "long hours of tedious darning"

   • knitted articles being mended or needing to be mended

So, now that you can visualize Father Mackenzie, darning his socks in the night, it’s time to grab that holey sweater.

First off, I’d like to suggest that you wash your sweater on cold, then lay atop your drying rack to dry. This will help ensure that there are no moths or moth eggs in your cherished sweater.

Now that that’s done with, we may begin.

You’ll want to find thread that matches the best you can.

Next you’ll want to grab all the loose loops and gently go horizontal, then vertical, until you repair the hole.

This is a bit hard to explain, so I’ll show you in photos below.

In retrospect, I possibly pulled my thread a little tight and caused the outside to pucker just a bit. The hole was actually fairly large sized, so I think next time I might put a small piece of fusible interlining on the inside to give me something to stitch to.

I was saved by the fact that this is a very busy-printed sweater, so once I zoomed out you don’t even see the hole. At this point, my major concern is to stop the hole from growing any further. Success!

Bra-lterations

Hah! Good one, right?

Speaking of bras, I don’t give up on a bad fitting bra easily. When I bought a few “final sale” bras from the GAP recently, I wouldn’t accept their non-fitting status. Bras are too expensive to not have a perfect fit. Also, they were in these super fun floral prints I have always wanted to own in a bra but could never justify. I couldn’t give them up.

So, I took a nude colored bra that fit me perfectly (also GAP Body) and measured the distance between cups. I saw that the new bras I had just gotten were missing some space between cups. So, I got out some gold grosgrain ribbon and went to work. The stitching isn’t beautiful (it was pretty difficult to sew on a bra) but the outcome was perfect! I wear these newly altered bras all the time now and they fit me just right.

Well Loved Bag

This bag lived a good life… and then I decided it was time for a second life!

I happened to have some wide, fused knit tape that seemed perfect for the occasion. It is stable and soft, easy to sew and perfect to capture all the frayed bits of nylon.

Pictures say it all:

Second Life for a Stained Tank

This tank had many-a-stain. So, I decided to add a few more :)

Put a Bird on it

I have long wondered how I can put my fabric scraps to a more meaningful use. So far my best guess is to use them to put birds on things

Teeny Tiny Itsy Bitsy Vest

In college as part of one of my classes at the University of Michigan I had to make a tailored vest.

I put a lot of time and effort into this little thing. Fully lined & boned, fitting my measurements perfectly.

Then it hung in a closet at my parents house Fornoles the next ten years. UNTIL! I started watching Schitts Creek and thought about that tiny little vest I made so long ago.

I included it as part of a Moira themed outfit and hope to continue to find ways to incorporate this tiny thing into my daily grind.

Vests really are best.

Party Dress (from so long ago)

In the late 2000s when bubble hems were all the rage, all I could dream of was a bubble hem dress in an obnoxiously loud print.

So! I draped it. I traced my draped pieces in newspaper and trued then up. Then I created a final brown packaging paper version photographed here.

Dress is fully lined with boning! It actually still fits me like a glove, even though I now do chin ups and have rather different looking arms.