I LOVE charity shops and not long ago found this little gem of a vintage sewing machine in a local one. I suspect the way I admire this baby is in much the same way as a biker might view his harley. It is a beautiful piece of machinery.
Who wears the trousers?
The man of the house insists on wearing his old trousers until they wear out - this is a great ethos but means that unless I intervene they are quite literally rags by the time he reluctantly bids them farewell (luckily he only wears them around the house in the final stages of their life). I've taken to hiding away the offending items until I fix them - he's under strict instructions not to wear them until I have made the necessary repairs.
(The first rule of mending, 'a stitch in time saves nine' should be cited here - get the needle and thread out at the first sign of damage, if garments are worn un-mended they will rip, by which point they are so much harder to fix.)
One pair of his old brown cords are now sporting a fetching black patch on the knee - not at all glamourous but they are only worn indoors (expect yesterday when he managed to distract me on our way out and it was only when we were sipping latte in our new local gastropub that I noticed, but in a strange way I felt quite proud seeing that little knee patch out in public). Another pair, this time grey cords (yes, my man loves a good pair of cords!), I decided to use as a guinea-pig for my first stab at darning.
Sew Slow
Now, I've always been pretty good at mending stuff - I'm patient, have a little bit of skill and am a perfectionist, all of which conspire to make my attempts at repair fairly decent. But, I never learnt to darn properly like they did 'back in the day'. Having recently read John-Paul Flintoff's 'Sew Your Own', I pounced on his recommendation to get hold of the book 'Make Do and Mend' which is a compilation of the official WW2 instructions on how to care for your clothes and extend their life for decades. John-Paul taught himself to darn with this book and as a skill I always thought I should learn, I too planned to add darning to my sewing arsenal.
I carefully read the darning instructions and after spending a tricky hour stitching away, I realised with more than a little disappointment that I bodged it somewhat. In my naivety I'd used thread that was far too fine (I now know it should be the same width as the thread in the weave), plus to make things worse, I darned too far apart. The results were pitiful. I cut my losses and made a small navy patch (which actually looks quite good). Taking one final look at the dear old grey cords, I noticed with a sinking heart that they had not one, but two more previously unseen holes...
A far more successful sewing project of mine was the alteration I carried out on a recent vintage purchase from the Traid charity shop in Brixton. Here it is before (when it was four sizes too big and looked like a sack) and after (below, much less like a sack) at the LFW Estethica Brunch with the brilliant Ameila Gregory founder of Amelia's Magazine. You can't really see it as it's hidden by my coat, badge, pass and tomato juice but you get the idea. And ok, I kind of included fashion week in a round about way... |
| Photo: Amisha Ghadiali |
Oh, and if you fancy doing a bit more sewing yourself but don't have a machine (or an amazing local charity shop in which to find one) then why not get a copy of latest issue of EggMag where you can win yourself one worth over £250!! For stockists http://www.eggmag.co.uk/. In the mag you can also read my fashion news, find out more about John-Paul Flintoff and win a copy of his inspirational book 'Sew Your Own'.
