How to Mend Knitwear Using Swiss Darning
In the second in our series on mending, we show you how to use Swiss Darning to repair a hole in a knitted fabric.
Swiss darning can be used to create a near-invisible mend if worked in the same colour as your garment, or a neat visible mend if you choose a contrasting colour. It uses a row of vertical foundation stitches to temporarily hold repair stitches, which are worked using a duplicate stitch. (Check out our duplicate stitch tutorial here).
What You Need
Needle - a tapestry, darning or wool needle with a large enough eye for your repair thread
Repair thread - in a similar weight and fibre to the garment that you are repairing
Thread to work the foundation stitches - ideally in a different colour to your repair thread, and slightly finer
Scissors - to tidy up the hole and snip any ends once you finish the repair
You may also find it useful to use a darning mushroom or an embroidery hoop to gently stretch and support the fabric while you work.