A tiny cover-up job
A PUMA basketball jacket fixed up for Fashion Revolution Week
‘Real change doesn’t live solely on screens, but in streets, schools, libraries, and communities – thriving with others who live and breathe the same values. Whether it’s making, mending or meeting, don’t just post about it – participate in real change.’
Fashion Revolution.
I’m exceedingly tired today. Builders are drilling into the front of our house, making an obscene amount of noise. It’s going right through me. My bones are buzzing and my head has been invaded by a giant, angry wasp.
The garden looks glorious and it’s so tempting to go and sit in the sunshine, to read a book. And yet, it’s Fashion Revolution Week, the annual campaign ‘bringing together the world’s largest fashion activism movement for seven days of action’. In honour of that, I have stepped away from my screen today, at least for a little while, to do a bit of stitching.
Plus, it’s been three weeks since my last post and I really wanted to share my mini darned cover-up here. But, the later it gets in the day, the less clarity I’ll have to form sentences on the page, so I’ll get this down while I have some semblance of focus.
Over the Easter holidays, my kids and I visited a fair few charity shops. I spotted this Puma baseball-style jacket, reduced from £12 to £6. I put it on and my 11-year-old, uber sporty son’s eyes lit up and he exclaimed, ‘Mum, you look so cool in that!’. How could I not buy it?
He’ll be off to secondary school in September and I’m all too aware that he may soon decide that everything I do, say and wear will be hopelessly uncool. At the moment, our bond feels tight and I can’t believe it’s inevitable that he’ll decide he has no time for me. For now, if he thinks I look cool, I’m going with it and holding onto that with all my might!
The jacket is perfect apart from a small stain on the right sleeve. It wouldn’t shift in the wash and tiny though it is, I’m irritated by it whenever I see it on my sleeve. I was ready to do a bright, bold darn over it when I realised I’d better check if the yarn was colour-fast first. (I don’t want my cover-up stitching to make matters worse!). If I had time, I would find the colours I want to use and wash them warm to check if they’ll run. Instead, I’ve chosen a subtle, pale shade that shouldn’t be too problematic if it isn’t colour-fast.
Darning and embroidery are great ways to fix up clothes that have marks or stains. I was keen to try out some creative embroidery, but again, I was short of time, so I went for something I know well. Otherwise, I might have procrastinated for too long and not got the job done.
My mending kit for this repair:
Snips
Needle
Cotton embroidery floss
Darning mushroom
Here’s how I did this repair:
This is a simple darned patch that involved creating the warp threads before weaving the weft threads in, over and under alternate warp threads.
It took around 5-10 minutes to stitch, far less time than it took me to find the right thread for the job. I actually had two false starts on the thread front, Goldilocks style. First, I tried some some pale blue knitting thread that was far too thick. Then I selected a thin, synthetic thread that did not look good, before I finally settled on this embroidery floss.
The theme for this year’s Fashion Revolution Week is Collective Action, which is very much up my street. Though I’ve been mending on my own today, I’m overdue a sewing session with friends and this week is a good reminder to get it in the diary. You can find out more about Fashion Revolution Week on their website: https://www.fashionrevolution.org/frw-26/
What’s coming up this week:
My mending pile: too many things to mention
Next week on The Mending Kit: I’m aiming to do a denim repair, but we’ll see how the week goes.
Want to read some more of my posts about darning? You can find them here: Darns from The Mending Kit.
Since writing this post earlier today, an actual swarm of buzzing creatures - honey bees - has materialised outside my house. Too weird considering the intro to this post.
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