new year, new mend

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Susi Bancroft

Uh oh – where have I been?!

Balancing….

Well , it seems to be attracting alot of interest! I find this heartening.

It always feels natural and easy working on denims – patching, mending, stitching, embroidering, creating something with a deeper beauty whilst protecting it, saving it from falling apart. It has lead a full life, shows the signs, the places of strain as well as tears.

So – in looking, suddenly I notice the full subtle colours of the threads, the softness of the cloth through wear. I want to hold on to this.

To back the tears with bursts of colour, to stitch the layers with rhythm and balance

and add something.

I want to thank someone special too – for her inspiration, and a practical note about blanket stitch! Have a look at http://daintytime.net/2012/12/15/faq-mending-binding/

Thanks Sherri Lynn!

Mending..

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Susi Bancroft

Ever since going to The Big Mend last time (see here) I have dreamed of patching my beloved jeans!

I saw the Liberty Lawn patching ideas from Scrapiana and it was the perfect match of wanting to mend and revitalise my jeans; try a stitch technique, and use some precious Liberty Lawn.

There was a mend already along the tears – see the blue perle thread ladders! The patch now peeps through – the inside against my skin consists of Lawn and soft perle thread. Liberty Lawn was a favourite of my mother’s (see here and other posts on ‘a delicate rhythm’)

I like the stitch -a sachiko stitch – a kind of kantha almost with it’s added rippling texture. I started doing a running stitch and mixed it with a stepped stitch so the strands at the back are not so long – a process of learning as I went along as usual!

I realise whilst working on it that there are many links to my practice, many deeper layers – loose threads (can’t bear to tidy those around the tear), rhythmic stitch, texture, the hidden (in this case back of the work), extending connections … I also noticed the texture of Lawn and Denim, the changes to the Denim from wear (bleached, softly threadbare balanced with deeper blue and strong weave).

Mending these brought my attention back to pausing and really looking at this clothing – feeling it differently, valuing it deeply….

I found a wonderful post today which links to this – have a look at ‘the unpredictable geography of mending, Sherri Lynn Wood

the big mend

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Susi Bancroft

Remember this?! Well The Big Mend with Scrapiana was such fun! A monthly mending get-together – and last night some ingenious, inspiring jeans mending and patching – see here for the ‘Liberty knee repair sachiko style’, ‘square spiral jeans mend’ and ‘red scribble jeans mend’ and Scrapiana’s beauty here… got to try sometime with my 2 most precious, faded and ripped pairs!

So – what did I take?

I took a favourite blue merino jersey of my mother’s – she would buy just one new one every couple of years from the same maker to keep her warm (loved the soft feel and lightness) and was always excited to order a new colour or style – I have so many pictures in my head of her in these.. and, yes I do wear them!

This one has a few threadbare places and one hole…

So – I have always been a bit nervous of darning and this idea of needle-weaving a patch to sew on is just so clever – see Eirlys’ samples on the left there!

Alison was there too and she did some amazing darning in singing colours and stitches..