Spiderweave Studio

Spiderweave Studio Decorative visible mending and stitching service for a sustainable wardrobe. Honouring traditional and contemporary techniques from around the world.

Spiderweave Studio, like life, is a work in progress. Many different strands of what I hold dear have finally come together into creating my studio - a desire to create a sustainable life that supports our planet through creating, mending and repurposing textiles rather than buying new. Honouring the wealth of needlework techniques from around the world, Spiderweave Studio seeks to make well-loved

clothes and textile items reusable and re-loved again for many years to come. In the coming months I hope to have a website up and running so you can see the services I offer, as well as a portfolio of projects already completed. In the meantime, if you would like to keep in touch, you can find me and my work on instagram
Thank you for your interest in my studio, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon.

I have socks that I would be loathed to part with - the ones that feel like home, that are so comfy and reassuring. It'd...
16/06/2022

I have socks that I would be loathed to part with - the ones that feel like home, that are so comfy and reassuring. It'd be such a shame to throw them away, because even though they're only a tiny bit of cotton-knitted fabric, just think how many socks are bought and thrown away, over and over again, just because they have a small amount of wear or a pesky toe hole.

Up 'til now I've been mostly using Swiss darning to mend sock heels which can be time consuming if I've left it too long and the wear is big, but here I've used a simple woven mend on the left heel and rows of backstitch on the right. Woven mends are pretty quick but don't really stretch at all. The backstitch takes more time but, like Swiss darning, is also stretchy. For both darns here I used two or three threads of embroidery cotton.

Those socks have been working hard for your feet! So I'm sharing my love for these old friends, the hard working socks 🧦

This old faithful's taken a bit of a battering lately with all the walking I've been doing. I wasn't going to let this b...
08/06/2022

This old faithful's taken a bit of a battering lately with all the walking I've been doing. I wasn't going to let this bag slowly fall apart! No to landfill for this sweet favourite. So onto the mending table it went.

Naturally the weakest part of this type of shoulder bag is where the fabric meets the strap, but the canvas is pretty tough so I managed to catch it quite early on and mend it with some darning.

I used three strands of Anchor embroidery thread in three colours - numbers 878, 275 and 922.

The bag has been back in use on a number of long walks again and I'm glad to say it has held up well. I'm looking forward to continuing to use it for years to come!

Darning a basketweave pattern.I'm a big fan of basketweave patterns, where you use two threads in each warp and weft row...
26/05/2022

Darning a basketweave pattern.

I'm a big fan of basketweave patterns, where you use two threads in each warp and weft row.

This basketweave darn is slight different though! Instead of two yarns per weft row, I'm using just the one. I've seen such a pattern named an irregular basketweave or a 'half-basketweave', which makes sense!

This darn is on a beautiful hand-knitted beige and navy striped cardigan. I'm using Jamieson & Smith shade 'Indigo' yarn and a size 24 tapestry needle.

This cardigan has a number of holes all over so I shall be sharing more photos as I progress.

It's so I'm giving some love to these old faithful socks and giving them some visible mending.It'd be such a shame to ...
22/04/2022

It's so I'm giving some love to these old faithful socks and giving them some visible mending.

It'd be such a shame to throw them away, because even though they're only a tiny bit of cotton knit, just think how many socks are bought and thrown away, over and over again, just because they have a small amount of wear or a small toe hole.

They've been working hard for your feet! So I'm giving them some TLC.

For both darns here I used embroidery cotton. The wear on the left heel wasn't so bad, so I went for the woven darn as it didn't need much stretch - perfect for a quick fix. The right heel wear was far bigger, so I thought I'd try the backstitch method, and it's so good because it stretches.

Fashion Revolution Week is until the 24th April, so do check out .org to dig deeper into why it's happening and how to get involved 💫

04/03/2022

Thinking about stitch tension when darning knitwear 🧶

It's never really been a conscious thought process, but I do like to match my darning tension to the tension of the knitwear I'm mending. With most of my mending, that's meant achieving a tighter darn because I've mostly worked on shop-bought items, but with this item, I've had to go the other way - getting a looser tension into my darning to match the looser, hand-knitted style of the cardigan.

It's not my usual style to go loose, but I'm actually really enjoying the process! There are lots of holes to mend, so I suspect you'll be seeing a fair bit more of this one 💜

Wishing you all a good weekend! ✨

Sneaky peek at a lovely mending commission 👀It's always a delight to work on a handmade item like this one which was han...
18/02/2022

Sneaky peek at a lovely mending commission 👀

It's always a delight to work on a handmade item like this one which was hand-knitted in Nepal and has been so well-loved and well-worn by its owner that it's developed quite a few holes.

The cardigan is a navy and beige striped design with two bright red front pockets, so I decided to go for plain darns in a couple of complementary colours to keep it clean and simple. Here is a close up of the first darn - I've decided to keep the weave fairly loose to reflect the loose hand-knitted nature of the cardie.

Mending details:
🪡 Beige and navy hand-knitted cardigan with red knitted front pockets
🪡 Yarn: Jamieson's Ultra yarn in Heliotrope 635
🪡 Needle: size 24 tapestry needle
🪡 Stitches: even weave darn

I look forward to sharing more of this cardigan with you in the very near future!

A chilly armpit has been averted! My partner's jumper needed some attention when I noticed this hole during one of his y...
09/02/2022

A chilly armpit has been averted! My partner's jumper needed some attention when I noticed this hole during one of his yawning moments 🥱

The area had lost some threads so in order to keep the shape I worked a simple darn in the same colour so as not to draw attention to the mend.

The spotty fabric you see underneath the jumper is a pressing ham I sometimes use to steady the area that needs repairing. It also means I can get an even mend and utilise both hands 🙌🏼 - so if you have a pressing ham or similar, it's a great tool for mending too.

Belated new year greetings to you! It's been some time since I posted, but not intentionally so - it's been a bit of a r...
21/01/2022

Belated new year greetings to you! It's been some time since I posted, but not intentionally so - it's been a bit of a rocky ride the past couple of months but please assured I have been taking some time to tackle different repair projects 🪡 In fact it's been really helpful right now to pick up a needle and thread, switch off and focus on bringing some beloved items back to life again.

The new year brought with it a big old repair job on this woollen scarf. Sometimes I use safety pins to mark where the holes are - swipe to see just a few of the places where the moth babies have attacked this scarf - 30 and counting! So I thought it'd be nice to mark the beginning of this mighty mend with a photo of the first hole being darned. I've got a cone of some very fine wool of a similar colour that'll do quite nicely, but I suspect I shall incorporate some colourful mends as well to complement the design of the scarf.

I hope you have had a good start to your year, and I look forward to sharing more mending with you over the coming months.

Highlights from 24 days of sashiko 🪡For the past few weeks I've been setting aside a little time each day to join in wit...
19/11/2021

Highlights from 24 days of sashiko 🪡

For the past few weeks I've been setting aside a little time each day to join in with a sashiko stitching challenge hosting by Kazue Yoshikawa of Sashiko.Lab. Each days Kazue gave us one pattern to stitch, with details as to how to stitch the rows in the correct order and a little bit of history behind the stitch. I've barely had any time to do sashiko stitching with all the woollen mending I've been getting through this year, so it gave me the perfect opportunity to bring out my sashiko needle and threads and get stitching.

I'm very happy to say that I managed to stitch all 24 sashiko patterns! I thought it would be nice to share some of these with you.

I still have much woollen mending to do, so I will be back to that very shortly, but for this moment I am so pleased to have had the chance to work on some wonderful sashiko again.

Hello colour! 🎨 The owner of this jumper allowed me creative freedom, so it was a real pleasure and privilege to be able...
29/10/2021

Hello colour! 🎨 The owner of this jumper allowed me creative freedom, so it was a real pleasure and privilege to be able to use such wonderful colours in this elbow mend.

The repair uses Scotch darning with some extra stitches on each row for added strength - my favourite fix for elbows because it is hard-wearing whilst giving some flexibility at the same time.

This repair follows on from the cuff mend I shared in my previous post on the same jumper. There are more mends to do - not so large! - and I hope to share these with you in the not too distant future.

Cuff repair complete! 🥳Yep, I'm celebrating now it's finished. Cuff repairs take a lot of time and focused attention, bu...
15/10/2021

Cuff repair complete! 🥳

Yep, I'm celebrating now it's finished. Cuff repairs take a lot of time and focused attention, but they also bring a lot of satisfaction - this one I particularly enjoyed as it allowed me to play with colour against the light grey background of the sweater.

I did take rather a lot of photos of this repair! So I thought I'd share a few from different angles - I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed doing this repair.

I really enjoy celebrating hand-stitched mends that bring a subtle creativity to clothing. This is especially true in ca...
24/09/2021

I really enjoy celebrating hand-stitched mends that bring a subtle creativity to clothing. This is especially true in cases like this where the owner would be mortified to have anyone staring at their backside!

This crotch repair is inspired by the Japanese technique of boro - a name derived from the Japanese 'boroboro' (something tattered or repaired) where textiles are reworked and repaired through patching and stitching to extend their use. I have used a fine sashiko thread in a colour close to that of the jeans, and a soft piece of denim cloth patched inside to cover the hole.

How the wearer feels with this stitching and extra piece of cloth on the inside is as important to me as how the mend looks on the outside, and the feedback I get from the owner will be so helpful for similar repairs in the future.

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East Molesey

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Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm

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