As soon as I had finished the transfer workshop with Stitchbook Collective, I started straight away with the next box, on visible darning. I don’t think I’ve ever tried darning before, I really wasn’t sure about this one but I was pleasantly surprised how much I got into it and enjoyed it…

The first thing we had to do was make two holes to darn! Helen had provided us with a piece of knitted jersey and a cute 3″ embroidery hoop – I’ve never used one so small!

The first hole was darned traditionally with a woven mesh of thread over the hole, the second was darned with a fabric patch over the back so you could just stitch over it. Of course as this was visible darning, it was all stitched in nice bright thread!

The second sample I made was making rag textiles. Helen provides us with various scraps including a piece of Indian Chindi rug which is made from recycled sari fabric. We unwound the scraps and ironed them flat. It is pot luck what you get with these, there was a couple that appealed, I then remember some silk sari scraps I had in my stash – a whole bundle of dyed narrow strips. I cut a length off and strated to arrange them all together. It started to look like a sunset over the sea, so I added a circle of orange from some fabric in the kit and then just embroidered round and round, starting in the middle of the sun and working outwards. I used an orange and pink variegated thread. I’m quite pleased with this one. The top and bottom samples are from the chindi rug, the bottom one looks a bit like dolphins leaping through the waves!

We then had to do some patching on some light-weight denim. We made holes again! I decided to incorporate the two darning samples I’d made earlier. I used a paisley style cotton to patch under and over the holes. I just had to work out how to stitch it.

I got quite into this bit, I used the paisley shape as a basis and stitched round,joining both areas together with running stitch. This is it part way through…

Once I was happy I had enough stitching, I added three buttons in two corners and another sample was finished.

I’m sure those of you who know my usual neat and tidy embroidery style will smile at just how far from my comfort zone this is, but I’m actually enjoying It!!

Next workshop is Tyvek, another new experience to try.