UPCYCLING OPTIONS
With our upcycling service, we hope to keep textiles in circulation for longer and transform your garments so they are unique to you. We want to divert clothing from landfill and lessen the burden of colonial waste. By rewearing and updating what you have already creates a better and more joyful attachment to your clothing. Please take a look at our upcycling portfolio below and if you’d like something similar or have an idea for an upcycled project, do get in touch!
1. Decorative Darning on Knitwear: Animal Collective Edition
For this type of hand darning imagery, you need to have a certain knit stitch on your garment called stocking stitch which is basically a flat surface knit. This allows the stitches to be duplicated and acts as a canvas. Have a look at the stitches below and if you’re unsure if you have a suitable garment for this, just send us a clear close up photo and we’ll let you know!
1.1 This was a nice charity shop find from Oxfam that was de-bobbled and hand darned with two sitting ducks.
1.2 This little piggy got added to another sweet Oxfam charity shop find!
1.3 A fishy coral scene was added to this vintage vest. The yarn used was from other secondhand jumpers that were unravelled and repurposed.
1.4 Here’s another under the sea scene with this soaring swimming turtle! The cardigan was sourced secondhand from Enable Ireland.
2. Darning Colour on Textured Knits
2.1 Some pops of colour were darned onto this vintage cardi vest for a much brighter look inspired by a children’s coat stand.
2.2 This cream aran jumper had some cables coloured in! We love adding this to give aran sweaters a new look and it’s a great way to use up scrap yarns.
3. Lettering on Textured Knits
For a flat surface knit, lettering can be added as duplicate stitches just as the animals above have been added. But for more textured knits with complex stitches, lettering can be added on top in a 3D fashion as seen here. This was a commission to add initials to the aran jumper, the cord was knitted on a knitting machine and hand stitched on which makes for a lovely personalised wardrobe staple.
4. Pockets!
You may recognise this cardigan from above which got a turtle darn on the back, but at the front, we added some pockets! Reach out to us if your garment is lacking in pockets to reach into! We would be delighted to fix that for you.
