Did some thrifting and came up with several items bound to come in
useful.
Nabbed a box of vintage DMC Fil a Repriser Superfin (extra fine daring
cotton) from France.
Very soft thread and oh so glossy. Will just suit all the linens one has
sitting in the mending box.
A very curious item called "Speed Weve" Darner. Lanca****re's Smallest
Loom.
Wish one had a digital camera, but here is a link to what the thing
looks like:
http://a1scrapmetal.blogspot.com/2004/08/speed-weve.html
Apparently there were several models of these things, and while sold as
"darners" the mechanism is more like a loom, as the copy states.
Tried it out on mending a small hole in an old linen tablecloth with
some Coats and Clark darning cotton. While first few rows weren't that
good, once one began thinking in terms of a loom, and not darning,
things got much better.
Basically one creates warp threads by taking thread or yarn up over the
hooks, and bringing it down fastening into the material with a double
stitch. This is done until the area to be darned is covered. Then one
lays in the weft threads by going up to the hooks and sending the needle
eye first over and under the proper warp threads until one reaches the
other side, where a small double stitch is taken. Once this is done a
bar is pressed right to left at the top, moving the hooks from right to
left and bringing one set of warp threads up, while sending others down.
This palaver proceeds until one reaches the top of the hole/warp
threads, then the machine is removed, and top loops worked into the
darn.
Have to say the thing works quite well for what it does. Certainly
better than straining one's eyes by trying make neat warp and weft
threads on one's own, that is of course excluding those who can do
expert reweaving/darning. Though my unit is labelled on the box for
"linen, cotton and wool", fine linens with tight weaves aren't going to
have that invisible reweave look, hooks are just to far apart. However
with good two or three ply darning cotton (or linen thread), results
will be serviceable. Streets ahead of machine darning, IMHO.
Candide
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