Swiss Darning

Still Needs A Bit More

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Responding to my reinforced / visible mended sweater Donna DeCourcy wrote:

“I think your darning is wonderful and you really have created a unique item with more life for the garment. My comment is this: I think your friend has a good idea with adding a little more darning at the shoulder, only because it will draw the eye upward rather than linger in the middle. I had an art teacher once who taught us to be conscious of where the eye travels through an art object and my eyes stayed on the darning you already have.
That is it! That is my 2 cents, for what it is worth.”

I wasn’t going to anything further but Donna’s argument made sense to me – instead of keeping the eye at my thickened middle, I should add further reinforcement closer to my shoulder to draw the eye toward my face, which I did last night.

Further Embellishing on Right Shoulder

With the sweater on, it’s obvious I still need to do more! I need more darning closer to the center – a couple of small patches like the ones just at bust level yet attached in some way to the work I did last night.

I can see this project may have no end! Once that’s done, I’m sure I’ll decide I want some darning on the back as well!

Maybe Not Finished But Wearable…

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Sweater With Visible Mending

You certainly can see the wear pattern on the sweater – worse on the back of the right sleeve and right front. A bit more concentrated just below the boob on the left front.

Yesterday, I wore it to show a friend; she suggested a bit more darning on one side closer to the shoulder. But I think I’m leaving this where it is, for now.

A One-of-a-kind Garment!

Other wear spots aren’t jumping out at me with the white turtleneck shirt beneath. The knitting in the sweater isn’t looking obviously threadbare anywhere else.

I think this job has been a success. I averted holes, save the garment from the garbage bin, and have myself a new interesting wearable sweater.

When You Can’t Throw It Out…

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I have a peachy/red sweater in my closet – I’ve owned it for at least 40 years – bought it at Mills Brothers when 100% wool sweaters were the norm. I have worn it a lot as the wear patterns attest. There are no holes – yet – but I haven’t had it on recently because my white turtlenecks highlight the worn spots.

I’m not sure what prompted me, but yesterday I looked at the sweater, thought about putting it in the garbage, but instead went through my yarn stash and found a ball of variegated sock yarn in shades of peach/red and decided to try repairing the sweater, instead. I thought about darning the worn sections but in the end decided Swiss darning was more appropriate.

Wear on the left front
Repair started on right sleeve
Both sleeves reinforced
Beginning of repair on right front

When I placed a piece of white paper inside the sweater the wear spots jumped out! There’s actually a LOT of reinforcing needed. Because I don’t actually have holes that need fixing, I am able to “duplicate” stitch my way through the thin sections, reinforcing the stitches in the sweater. It’s a slow process with lots of yarn ends needing to be woven into the back of each reinforced section.

At the moment, I have both sleeves “done” (I may do more). I’ve started on the right front – rather than one very large patch, I’m planning to create several smaller sections – I can always join them up if I need to.

I’m not sure what the repair is going to look like when I’m done or whether I might actually wear the sweater when I’m finished! I just need to get back to my darning and see what happens.