Not TikTok, But Chesstok

 

At the beginning of the month I posted about trousers. Steph had passed on a pair of jeans, described online as 'ripped Mom jeans'. The dictionary tells me that "ripped" can mean torn, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or possessing good muscle tone. I am not a 'ripped mom' [Steph has good muscle tone though...] How was I going to repair the eight rips on the thighs and right shin?

Visible, creative mending is very 'on trend' at the moment. I considered Japanese techniques [sashiko and boro] and the Indian kantha, [more patching and embroidery, using rags] And then my search ended up just 3 miles from Steph's front door, with the discovery of A & E Chesstok's "Speed-weve, Lancashire's smallest loom" How did I not know about this little miracle before?

In 1963, when I joined the Brownies, we had to learn to darn - we even had the original WW2 leaflets which showed us how to do it. Stitch round the hole, make a series of vertical 'warp' threads, then weave your 'weft' across to cover the hole. Well, it turns out that the Chesstok brothers had developed a gadget to make this process much easier - creating very even darns. These were made in Wilmslow Road, Rusholme, in their factory in The Trocadero Buildings [which sadly burned down in the 1970s]

Here's the instruction leaflet. I learned how a darning loom has two parts: a wooden disc onto which you place your fabric, and a metal loom. The wooden disc has a groove around the side so you can attach the loom to the disc and fabric using 

an elastic band. Run your fingers across the chain of hooks at the top to make the metal hooks flip one way and the other. This alternates the height of the warp/vertical threads so you can quickly and accurately weave over and under

I discovered dozens of YouTube clips about the Speedweve, ways to darn on different fabrics, methods of varying the colours, and threading the wefts to produce stripes, and houndstooth checks and more. 

I sent off for one. And from the moment I got it out of the packet, I was literally 'hooked'. I found a scrap of woollen fabric and tried out different yarns, thick and thin.

The packet contained a wooden disc, elastic bands, a varied selection of needles, some plastic clips, an instruction sheet - and the little metal loom itself.

First attempt - rather over ambitious. I used about 20 different colours and the weaving in on the back was far too messy. But it had a certain quirky charm

I tried fine crochet yarn - the holes were too big. Then soft cotton-a-broder, with blue warp and brown weft. That was a lot neater. I realised that drawing out a rectangle with my marking pen made it much easier to keep to a neat shape.  I looked at the eight rips in the jeans - none was more than 2" long, and not too wide.

I decided on 6 strands of embroidery floss, and chose a selection of the variegated threads from my stash. I darned in the ends neatly and backed each darn with a patch of lightweight iron on interfacing for added security.

I now have some pretty summer jeans, which will remind me of my Manchester family whenever I wear them...[thanks again Steph]  

This site is a good place to start, although I bought a less expensive loom online which is working fine. And here's an American video showing the method,