Visible Mending: Gloves
Extending the Life of Gloves
Does anyone else get through their gloves really quickly? I can go through a good 2 pairs in a winter, and so I have a collection of old holey pairs, and with the current amount of snow, I wasn't about to go outside with my fingers exposed! So this week I've been extending the life of my gloves by repairing my way through them.
A pair of cashmere gloves with holes in both thumbs and a finger.
One of the thumbs was so worn down that I decided to crochet a new tip on.
The finished gloves. I repaired the other fingers by darning them in fun colours.
I wore the gloves a few more times this week and another hole appeared, and a worn area on another finger that I caught before it broke completely.
Visibly mended gloves with additional repairs. One was darned, and one was reinforced using swiss darning.
Creatively Mending Gloves
I had a lot of fun picking colours to make the mends playful and creative. The gloves below were found by my mum in a charity shop- they've been hand knitted, and fit me perfectly, so as soon as I spotted them wearing then at the fingertips I used swiss darning to reinforce the areas to avoid holes in the first place. I'm not a huge fan of beige, so much as I love these gloves and appreciate the skill that went into them, it was a nice excuse to add some bright colours.
Hand knitted gloves that were wearing out on two fingers- so I have reinforced them with Swiss darning to prevent bigger holes.
Detail of swiss darning on the fingers.
Combining Different Mending Techniques
The pair of fairisle gloves below were from Eribe, another knitwear company in Galashiels. As I left them a bit too long before relegating them to the "to mend" pile, both thumbs needed reconstructing, so I used crochet for that, then darning for the holes, and swiss darning on one thumb to reinforce a worn area.
I wore these gloves for too long after the holes appeared, so they're missing half both thumbs!
I used crochet for the thumbs, and darned the fingers in contrasting colours.
Detail of the mends- they're pretty sturdy, so should keep this pair in use for a lot longer now.
Loved Clothes Last
I have to admit I had no particular attachment to the gloves below- they were a present, and while very cosy, I don't really like the colour combination, and I find the length a bit impractical at times. However, mending them has meant I could add colours I like, and I'm going to start wearing them again.
Another pair of cashmere gloves with a hole in the thumb. The other thumb turned out to be very worn and also needed mending.
The finished gloves, one with a darned hole, and the other with swiss darning to reinforce worn area.
Detail of mended gloves. The swiss darned thumb is the left one, and i used two colours for darning the thumb on the right.
Reducing the Environmental Impact of Clothes
Mending clothes reduces their environmental impact, as they stay out of landfill longer. I also find that I enjoy wearing them more afterwards, as I have more attachment to them. Have you tried mending anything in your wardrobe? If it's something you're interested in, please sign up to the newsletter, as I'm planning to organise some workshops later this year!
Details of gloves with mended fingers.
Details of Visible Mending on Gloves.
I’m now starting to offer a bespoke visible mending service- please click here for more details.
If you would like to learn how to darn your own knitwear but can’t make it to one of my workshops, you can find my pre-recorded darning workshop here.