Quilting & Visible Mending

The foundation of my stitching and quilting knowledge has been passed on to me from my mother and I have been sewing since as long as I was old enough to wield a blunt needle and turn the handle on my Grandma’s old Singer sewing machine.

Passed on through generations mending has been around for centuries in order to prolong the life of textiles. Whilst clothing, certainly choice of, is no longer limited on the market I wish to reinforce repairing and repurposing as positive valued processes. We all have that favourite worn out garment that we can’t bare to get rid of but with a little love it can live on to fight another day.

There are mending traditions in many cultures from around the world which can inspire how we repair and repurpose today. It is my view that these age old processes of mending, processes that were once seen as ordinary and part of everyday life, now add value and beauty to an item alongside their ability to add structure, repair and preserve.

A brief guide to the processes that are used in the repurposing of my pieces:

Darning: May be used to repair and strengthen fabric within an item, if applicable you will find note of this in the product description. Historically this process was used to repair wool textiles, particularly socks with fast wear through, and involves filling in an area (tear or hole) by weaving rows of stitching close together. The process of darning can be used to draw attention to the mend through use of colour and texture.

Patching: May be used if there is any excess fabric not used in the structure of the piece. This may be used as either pure ornament or as another form of repair.

Patchwork: A way to use up textile scraps. We can see this process being used in history…sometimes out of necessity, sometimes for pleasure. I would like to honour this process through my quilts using second hand and vintage fabric remnants, creating repurposed pieces for the future entwined with pieces from past.

Machine Quilting: A process used to sandwich a layer of warm cotton wadding between 2 layers of fabric. It provides both structure and decoration and will be used as a first step to secure the padding in both jacket and quilt items.

Hand Quilting: The garments may feature an extra layer of hand stitching and this will be apparent in the product description. The hand quilting will be an intentionally visible feature and will be done, not with the usual fine waxed cotton, but in a heavier twisted cotton thread. The hand quilting of a piece will be used to add embellishment as well as to further stabilise the textile.

With the current over consumption of fast fashion and the tonnes of textile waste we see globally I hope to inspire action and/or conversation on more responsible textiles choices through the repurposing, quilting and mending seen here.