I grew up in the 60s. I remember my mom turning the collar on my dad’s dress shirts and using a wooden darning egg to darn the worn spot on the heel of his socks. The trick with the socks is to darn before there is an actual hole; do it when the material has a thin spot because then you still have a base of threads to weave over. I found YouTube videos for both of these.
The choice of different colors for the mending is reminiscent of the Japanese art of Kintsugi ("golden seams"), a way of repairing ceramics in a way that simultaneously highlights and beautifies the cracks.
This post has finally demystified the darning process for me (even after watching countless YouTube tutorials, I was still intimidated to take the plunge). Have a pile of beloved socks that need my mending attention—they and I thank you for all this info! 🙏♥️
Thank you for this! I have a denim jacket with a couple holes in the sleeve now and am going to try this. What are your thoughts about darning a tear in a duvet? Good idea or might I be better to patch it?
I fished out a favorite sweater from the rag pile when I moved (just could NOT part with it) and now I think I might be able to save it instead of mourn it. Thank you for sharing these tips!
I just attempted this on my torn duvet earlier today and wish I found this article a few hours sooner, so helpful! There are more holes to mend, taking notes 🫡
Hi! I'm wondering if the virtual crafternoon I host would be a useful thing to add to the list of mending clubs? It's not explicitly mending but there is often mending going on, and folks helping each other think through their mends. Here's more info if you want to talk more about it (or come sometime): https://couchcrafts.wordpress.com/2025/03/21/your-new-spring-social-calendar/
Some fabric are easier to mend than others. Cheap children’s clothes fabric falls apart so easily and picky kids don’t want the hole to stand out. I want to keep perfectly good condition high quality clothes that the kids out grew to use in projects, but I always get pressured to give the clothes away, probably most will end up in land fills.
I love the creative ways you darn things. My grandma taught me to darn socks and sweater-elbows when I was very young—and years later I won a bet proving to my college friends that not only did I know what darning was, but I could do it passably well! Victory! Your work inspires me. Thanks!
They can be! For something that stretchy though I don't think darning would be the best technique unless the whole is on the small side. I've done some patches before on stretchy sweatpants by placing a fabric with similar stretchy underneath the hole and going around the edge with a zig zag stitch on the machine - I need to learn more about doing patches on strech fabric by hand :)
I grew up in the 60s. I remember my mom turning the collar on my dad’s dress shirts and using a wooden darning egg to darn the worn spot on the heel of his socks. The trick with the socks is to darn before there is an actual hole; do it when the material has a thin spot because then you still have a base of threads to weave over. I found YouTube videos for both of these.
Loved this post. I’ve just started repairing moth holes in some old favorites. This was very helpful and inspiring. Thanks. ❤️
The choice of different colors for the mending is reminiscent of the Japanese art of Kintsugi ("golden seams"), a way of repairing ceramics in a way that simultaneously highlights and beautifies the cracks.
This post has finally demystified the darning process for me (even after watching countless YouTube tutorials, I was still intimidated to take the plunge). Have a pile of beloved socks that need my mending attention—they and I thank you for all this info! 🙏♥️
So lovely to hear! Feel free to come back to me with questions once you get started!
Thank you, that’s so generous! ☺️
spent my weekend following this & finally darning over a hole in a jacket i’ve been wearing for years!! thanks so much (:
I remember my Mom darning socks in the 70's using the "egg" from Leggs panty hose. I now know it was for tension. Inspirational post
Colors are the fun part!
Thank you for this! I have a denim jacket with a couple holes in the sleeve now and am going to try this. What are your thoughts about darning a tear in a duvet? Good idea or might I be better to patch it?
Also any advice on thread options would be super for a future post!
Depends how big the hole in the duvet is - if it's small I think darning would be nice but for a bigger hole I'd patch it. I'll make my next tutorial about patching but this one that I found also looks like a good place to start as well (https://blog.closetcorepatterns.com/how-to-fix-ripped-jeans-with-visible-mending-sashiko-and-denim-patches/)
Wonderful! Thank you - looking closer at the tear, (it’s L shaped, like it was slit almond on something), I think a patch is probably best too.
I fished out a favorite sweater from the rag pile when I moved (just could NOT part with it) and now I think I might be able to save it instead of mourn it. Thank you for sharing these tips!
I needed something to smile about today and this is it!!! Thank you for sharing your skills and passion 🩵
I just attempted this on my torn duvet earlier today and wish I found this article a few hours sooner, so helpful! There are more holes to mend, taking notes 🫡
Hi! I'm wondering if the virtual crafternoon I host would be a useful thing to add to the list of mending clubs? It's not explicitly mending but there is often mending going on, and folks helping each other think through their mends. Here's more info if you want to talk more about it (or come sometime): https://couchcrafts.wordpress.com/2025/03/21/your-new-spring-social-calendar/
Some fabric are easier to mend than others. Cheap children’s clothes fabric falls apart so easily and picky kids don’t want the hole to stand out. I want to keep perfectly good condition high quality clothes that the kids out grew to use in projects, but I always get pressured to give the clothes away, probably most will end up in land fills.
I love the creative ways you darn things. My grandma taught me to darn socks and sweater-elbows when I was very young—and years later I won a bet proving to my college friends that not only did I know what darning was, but I could do it passably well! Victory! Your work inspires me. Thanks!
Can material like leggings be mended or is that material too thin?
They can be! For something that stretchy though I don't think darning would be the best technique unless the whole is on the small side. I've done some patches before on stretchy sweatpants by placing a fabric with similar stretchy underneath the hole and going around the edge with a zig zag stitch on the machine - I need to learn more about doing patches on strech fabric by hand :)