There is a cardigan in my wardrobe which I love, and so once did a juvenile moth, but I have never had the inclination or the skills to darn it; after all, darning is boring. But then I saw an advert for a Visible Darning course at BRLSI this autumn and decided to give it a go.
Anna (from Love Maker’s Craft Café) prepared this course fundamentally with the desire to extend use of moth-nibbled woollies and worn -to-holes jeans, but also to stimulate creativity, individualism and enjoyment while repairing. Ergo: we would want to mend more and throw less away!
With a packet of needles for specific functions (Sashiko!); cruel-looking instruments for hooking, threading and felting; quantities of threads, and – most important – bright table lights, we embarked on six different repair techniques. Anna demonstrated and guided us through three types of darning (three! who knew!) and then patches enlivened with embroidery and felting.
This course inspired us to innovate and beautify as well as developing our mending skills. Darning with colour and using a range of material and embroidery techniques were an eye opener (for me). Anna had worked the jeans in the photo with functional patches inside and artistic designs out. The coat – decimated by the moth- has been brought back to good with original, and ironic, decorated felt patches.
This playful approach to mending was stimulating, good fun (maybe not the Turkey stitch!) and sociable, as we darners interacted over our work. Although I had considered throwing my cardigan away, instead I took it along to Anna’s Meet and Mend session at The Boston Tea Party (Alfred Rd). It’s just the job if you have a mending project which needs a nudge to start as well as guidance and materials to complete. Scan the QR code for more information.
The 6-week Visible Darning course at BRLSI is to be repeated in January 2026.
Thank you to our volunteer Gill for writing this article.
