Journal

Visible mending with Flora Collingwood-Norris

Flora Collingwood-Norris is a knitwear designer and maker based in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. She's put together the following tutorial to show exactly how to make mending a decorative statement. You can find out more about Flora's work in my interview with her here.

Step One - Materials

• 1 X holey piece of knitwear
• Yarn in a similar weight and fibre to the knitwear, the closer the better.
• 1 X tapestry needle (long eye and blunt point)
• Scissors

Step Two

• Work up and down your hole first to make secure any unravelling stitches. Use the sharp pointed needle.
• Weave in and out of the fabric before and after the hole as many times as you like to reinforce the fabric and/or create a decorative feature.
• Space the rows of stitching half a knitted stitch apart.
• Be careful of your tension - the threads shouldn't pull on the fabric or become loopy.

Step Three

• For a check pattern, change colours every few lines.

Step Four

• Start at the side of your darn, at the bottom of the loose threads covering the hole and work your needle in and out of every alternate thread.

Step Five

• On the next row, weave in and out of the alternate threads you missed out last time.

Step Six

• As you weave your needle through the threads, push it down against the row before, to keep the darn compact.
• Change colour when you feel like it!

Step Seven

• To finish your ends, catch them in on the wrong side of the fabric - a few stitches in different directions will secure them. If you’re using something like cotton or silk rather than wool, add a few more.

   

Step Eight

• Use plenty of steam (and make sure your iron is set to a suitable temperature), and lightly press down on the mend.

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