Learn how to mend clothing that has been torn or has holes in the fabric with our new blog, studying the technique of Broderie Anglaise to achieve a beautiful design to give your clothing a new lease of life! Following this year’s Met Gala where sustainable fashion was the surpise trend of the evening, we think this is a great way to apply that spirit to your own wardrobe.
Sadly one of our team members top’s was damaged and had a slight tear in the fabric, which gave us a perfect opportunity to show off our new found skills after taking the Broderie Anglaise online class, let me share with you how we created our design along with mending the damaged garment.
Step 1.
Access the damage and plan a design best suited for the area.
Step 2.
Set up your garment in a window frame. See ‘Pro tips: Window mounting a garment’ for more information and help on how to do this!
Step 3.
Stabilize the holes.
- Knot the end of your thread (two stranded embroidery thread) and plunge into the fabric about 1cm away from the hole.
- Come up through the fabric and do your stab stitch to make a small knot. Then do a running stitch around the edge of the hole, for stability.
3. Come up through the fabric on the outside of your running stitch and then down into the hole, repeat this to create a satin stitch the whole way around.
Step 4.
Create the design using all the techniques you have learnt and get creative!
How to create the raised flower and leaves.
- Stab stitch to start, then a running stitch around the edge of the shape.
- Then depending on which way you want your top stitch to look, do the opposite under. So I did a horizontal satin stitch across the base of the petal and then a vertical stitch over it.
- In the video I have done 3 layers of stitch for the petal this can be cut back to two, depends what end effect you desire.
To learn how to do the Broderie Anglaise technique visit the online classes section on our website and purchase the kit for yourself!
Equipment needed:
- Damaged garment
- Embroidery thread
- Stiletto
- Scissors
- Needle
- beads (optional)
- Embroidery hoop
- Embroidery frame and/or clamp
Broderie Anglaise originated in Czech Republic in the 16th century, however had increased popularity in England in the 19th century leading to it having strong associations with Britain.
The Victorian’s favoured this style and the technique was developed further for the fashion of the time, with varying of hole size and shape all embroidered by hand until 1870 when a machine was created that could mirror what was possible by hand. Today, nearly all Broderie Anglaise is done by machine. For further reading we have a previous blog on Broderie Anglaise if you are interested to know more!
If you found this project inspiring, let us know and we would love to see what you went on to make if you want to try this out for yourself so please do tag us in your project using @londonembschool on instagram.
Words, Images, Design and Stitching by Amelia Vance
