Darning

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Darning

Darning is a sewing

Sewing

Sewing or stitching is the fastening of cloth, leather, furs, bark, or other flexible materials, using Sewing needle and yarn. Its use is nearly universal among human populations and dates back to Paleolithic times ....
technique for repairing holes or worn areas in fabric

Textile

A textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by Spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn....
or knitting

Knitting

Knitting is a method by which yarn may be turned into cloth. Knitting consists of loops called stitches pulled through each other. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can be passed through them....
with needle and thread alone.

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Encyclopedia

Darning is a sewing

Sewing

Textile

Knitting

Sewing machine

A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric or other material together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies....
. Hand darning employs the darning stitch, a simple running stitch

Running stitch

The running stitch or straight stitch is the basic stitch in hand-sewing and embroidery, on which all other forms of sewing are based. The stitch is worked by passing the Sewing needle in and out of the textile....
in which the thread is "woven" in rows along the grain of the fabric, with the stitcher reversing direction at the end of each row. Darning is a traditional method for repairing fabric damage that does not run along a seam and where patching would create undue stress for the wearer, such as the heel of a sock.

Darning also refers to any of several needlework

Needlework

Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework....
techniques worked in darning stitches:

Pattern darning is a type of embroidery
Embroidery

File:Kazakh rug chain stitch embroidery.jpgEmbroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating Textile or other materials with sewing needle and yarn....
that uses parallel
Parallel (geometry)

Parallelism is a term in geometry and in everyday life that refers to a property in Euclidean space of two or more line s or plane , or a combination of these....
rows of straight stitch
Straight stitch

Straight or Flat stitch is a class of simple embroidery and sewing stitches in which individual embroidery stitch are made without crossing or looping the yarn....
es of different lengths to create a geometric design.

Net darning, also called filet lace
Filet lace

Filet lace is a Needle lace created by darning on a ground of net ....
, is a 19th century technique using stitching on a mesh foundation fabric to imitate lace
Lace

Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric....
.

Needle weaving is a drawn thread work
Drawn thread work

Drawn thread work is a form of counted-thread embroidery based on removing threads from the Warp and/or the weft of a piece of even-weave fabric....
embroidery technique that involves darning patterns into barelaid warp or weft threads.

Darning cloth

In its simplest form, darning consists of anchoring the thread in the fabric on the edge of the hole and carrying it across the gap. It is then anchored on the other side, usually with a running stitch or two. If enough threads are criss-crossed over the hole, the hole will eventually be covered with a mass of thread.

Fine darning, sometimes known as Belgian darning, attempts to make the repair as invisible and neat as possible. Often the hole is cut into a square or darn blends into the fabric.

There are many varieties of fine darning. Simple over-and-under weaving of threads can be replaced by various fancy weaves, such as twills, chevrons, etc., achieved by skipping threads in regular patterns.

Invisible darning is the epitome of this attempt at restoring the fabric to its original integrity. Threads from the original weaving are unravelled from a hem or seam and used to effect the repair. Invisible darning is appropriate for extremely expensive fabrics and items of apparel.

In machine darning, lines of machine running stitch are run back and forth across the hole, then the fabric is rotated and more lines run at right angles. This is a fast way to darn, but it cannot match the effects of fine darning.

Darning tools

There are special tools for darning socks or stockings:

A darning egg is an egg-shaped ovoid of stone, porcelain, wood, or similar hard material, which is inserted into the toe or heel of the sock to hold it in the proper shape and provide a firm foundation for repairs. When the repairs are finished, the darning egg is removed.

A darning gourd is a hollow dried gourd
Gourd

A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae, or a name given to the hollow, dried shell of a fruit in the Cucurbitaceae family of plants of the genus Lagenaria....
with a pronounced neck. The sock can be stretched over the full end of the gourd and held in place around the neck for darning.

A darning mushroom is a mushroom-shaped tool usually of wood. The sock can be stretched over the curved top of the mushroom, and gathered tightly around the stalk to hold it in place for darning.

A darning needle is a long, heavy sewing needle
Sewing needle

A sewing needle is a long slender tool with a pointed tip. The first needles were made of bone or wood; modern ones are manufactured from high carbon steel wire, nickel- or gold plated for corrosion resistance....
with a blunt tip and large eye for drawing decorative threads through the intersections of the ground fabric.

Pattern darning

Pattern darning is a simple and ancient embroidery

Embroidery

File:Kazakh rug chain stitch embroidery.jpgEmbroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating Textile or other materials with sewing needle and yarn....
technique in which contrasting thread is woven in-and-out of the ground fabric using rows of running stitches which reverse direction at the end of each row. The length of the stitches may be varied to produce geometric designs. Traditional embroidery using pattern darning is found in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, Northern

Northern Europe

Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries and dependent regions:...
and Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
, the Middle East

Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
and Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
.

Pattern darning is also used as a filling stitch in blackwork embroidery

Blackwork Embroidery

File:English cover, AIC.jpgBlackwork Embroidery is a form of counted-thread embroidery that is usually stitched on even-weave fabric. Any black thread can be used, but firmly twisted threads give a better look than embroidery floss....
.

External links

from American Dressmaking Step by Step (1917) by Mme. Lydia Trattles Coates
by Sally Simon at the American Needlepoint Guild (examples and stitching techniques)
as an embellishment technique