Mend the (smallish) holes in your sweater
Part 1: Intro to darning techniques + roundup of DIY & professional repair resources
Table of Contents
Methods for mending sweaters & knitwear
Learn how to mend sweaters & knits yourself
Find a professional to mend your sweaters & knits
Part 2 (coming next Friday) will cover larger holes and creative knitwear modification & upcycling!
Methods for mending sweaters & knitwear
A bit about knits…
Understanding the basics of fabric structure & mending techniques will make it easier to find the right repair resources to solve your problem. If you’re already familiar with textiles and mending, you can skip down to the DIY & professional repair resources!
Most fabrics fall into two categories:
Wovens
Knits
Wovens (left) are made by interlacing two or more threads at right angles to one another. Woven fabrics do not have much stretch (unless the threads themselves are inherently stretchy like spandex), and woven fabric is typically used to make things like dress shirts, jeans, and bedsheets.
Knits (right) are made of a single strand of fiber / yarn, that is looped onto itself creating an inter-meshing of loops. Due to their looped structure, knit fabrics are generally stretchy. T-shirts are usually made of knit fabric - if you look really closely at your T-shirt (or sweater, or hoodie, or socks) you can see tiny columns of loops.
Mending methods
Two of the most popular ways to mend knit fabrics are:
Woven darning
Swiss darning, often called ‘invisible mending’ for knits
Woven darning (left) involves creating a patch of woven fabric to ‘fill’ or cover a hole. Woven darning can be used to repair both knit fabrics and woven fabrics.
Swiss darning (right) follows the looped structure of the knit, essentially re-knitting the hole, creating an ‘invisible’ look when using matching yarn.
In either case, you can choose to use an exact or close yarn match to achieve an unobtrusive or ‘invisible’ repair.
Or, you can take a visible / decorative mending approach and use color, shape, and technique to treat your repairs as new design element to your garment!
Learn how to mend sweaters & knits yourself
Classes / Workshops & Meetups
Nothing beats hands-on instruction - most of these skills ultimately take repetition to get good, and having a person available to watch & correct your form speeds things up considerably.
I’ve also found that the act of committing to a class / meetup (and therefore dedicating specific time to mending) is the ONLY way I’ve managed to make a dent in my own repair pile.
Most darning classes I’ve come across are focused on general purpose woven darning (works for knits, thin wovens). Some darning classes specialize in socks, or denim. I’m focusing on repairing knits & socks here and will do a separate series in the future covering various ways to repairing denim! Also - classes focused on Swiss darning are very rare, but I’ve called out the ones I know, below.
Host darning classes & meetups in NYC
Host general mending classes & meetups in NYC
(may be able to help with darning and/or occasionally host a darning-specific event)
Earlier this week I posted a roundup of upcoming mending events in NYC (& Virtual), keep an eye out for the next roundup on Monday!
Host darning classes outside of NYC (& Virtual)
Collingwood Norris (UK & Virtual) *offers Swiss darning classes
Knit With Me (UK) *offers Swiss darning classes
Slow Stitch Club (UK) *offers Swiss darning classes
Be sure to check your local libraries and arts & craft centers!
Books & Guides
There are tons of books, guides, and videos out there you can reference if you’re learning how to darn (or want to refresh and / or practice your skills after taking a class). Here are a few good ones that I have / follow / recommend - and now that you know the terminology, you can easily search for others to suit your needs!
Book: Visible Creative Mending for Knitwear by Flora Collingwood-Norris - I purchased this book last year, it’s a fantastic guide to knitwear-specific mending & darning techniques, with beautiful examples of visible mending
Video Tutorial: Collingwood-Norris also offers pre-recorded darning tutorials & classes
Book: I love that the english edition of Hikaru Noguch’s Darning, Reapir, Make, Mend Book comes with a small ‘starter kit’ of needles, yarn, and a yarn threader
Newsletter: friend
recently wrote a great ‘how to’ guide to darning for her newsletter - includes videos (I always find helpful to watch & rewatch when I’m learning a new fiber skill)
Book: A newsletter about darning wouldn’t be complete without mention of artist Celia Pym. Her book On Mending is less a guide than a meditation on repairing damaged garments. I wish I could attend her exhibit Socks: The Art of Care and Repair, on view in Greenwich, UK through March 30th
Newsletter: In putting together this newsletter, I came across
’s newsletter and (the same Slow Stitch Club mentioned under classes above and professional mending services below). Also linking her YouTube channel here, with super helpful tutorials, including advanced techniques like darning cuffs and swiss darning.Instagram: there are a bunch of darners / menders worth following for inspiration & instruction!
@alexandrabrinck - for fantastic up-close videos of swiss darning
@visible_creative_mending (Collingwood-Norris)
I’m sure there are tonsss more (and I don’t even really use TikTok but I’m guessing there are good videos & resources there as well) - would love to hear who you all follow too!
Find a professional to mend your sweaters & knits
If you don’t have the time to mend things yourself, I’ve rounded up a number of professional repair services, focusing on those that specifically offer darning / knitwear repair.
Many of these providers offer a wide range of clothing repair services, so consider them your answer to that pile of damaged & ‘not quite right’ clothes sitting in the back of your closet…
US-based professional knitwear repair
Old Flame Mending - sweater repair / darning, patching
FXRY - sweater repair / darning, swiss ‘invisible’ darning, depilling
Salvage Studio - sweater repair / darning, patching
Village Mending - sweater repair / darning, swiss ‘invisible’ darning, patching
French American Reweaving Co. - I’ve long heard good things about this company, they don’t have a website that I can find but I linked Yelp which includes their phone number & address in Midtown Manhattan. I believe they do knitwear repair as well as reweaving holes in woven fabric.
Alterknit - I’ve come across this company before, but have had trouble finding more info & whether they’re still in operation (if you have intel please let me know!)
Mend Mother - general darning & patching (can be applied to knitwear)
KEEP - swiss ‘invisible’ darning, custom repair
Outside of the US
The Seam (UK) - knitwear repair (visible & invisible), de-pilling
SOJO (UK) - knitwear repair (visible & invisible), de-pilling
Alexandra Brinck (UK) - knitwear repair (specializes in invisible aka swiss darning)
Slow Stitch Club (UK) - knitwear repair (visible & discrete darning), patching
I hope this guide is useful as you contemplate the holes you’ve found and whether / how to repair them. I would love to continue adding to this list of resources - if you know of darning resources and repair providers that I have missed, please let me know so that I can update & include them here!
This is epic. Thanks for compiling this! I hadn’t heard of the Celia Pym exhibition- how cool. I love that you’ve included UK options.
Also in the UK, Finisterre offer group classes in their stores and Andrea Cheong does Mindful Monday repair classes. Lots of great options and I’m so happy to see more people talking about it.
I haven’t done a round up of classes on my newsletter since last year so this is the nudge for me to start again. Thank you!
What a great roundup! One more to add to your professionals list is mendmother.com, they also take mail in darns. My favorite darning resource for learning lately have been Skye’s videos on YouTube! I watched her darn a cuff the other day and I’ve always been confused about how people do that