Darning a Sock - How to Mend Your Clothes While Self-Isolating Series: 5 Easy Stitch Fixes

I think this is the scariest repair featured in this guide, but also the most useful. How many times have you worn through a heal in your sock? I have a whole bunch of hiking socks with holes right where my boots would rub at the base of my ankle. Here I’ll darn a sock that I had originally thought would be added to my “too far gone…figure out textile recycling eventually” pile. ​

1) First off, find something to stick your sock on to hold it in the right position as if it was in use while you go about stitching it. An old light bulb (what I used), a tennis ball, a glass…get inventive! You can also buy a darning mushroom. Find a thread that is about the same thickness, if you can. I’m using a couple strands of embroidery thread. Knot your thread and use your needle to pull it through the sock, hiding the knot.

2) What you’re aiming to do, is again, is build your own loom to weave in the missing parts of your item. You want to start where your garment or sock is stronger to let it securely anchor your repair in place and not just pull out. So, away from where your hole/holes are, start stitching in straight rows, up and down in a running stitch, stitching one over to create a new row every time you reach the end.
When you go over the holes, the thread will just float in that space, that’s perfect! Keep your rows as straight and evenly spaced (ideally close together) as you can. Mine above are not as clean as would have been best, but you learn from doing!

3) When you feel you have sufficiently covered the weakened part of your fabric, turn it 90 degrees and start sewing rows perpendicular. Weaving through the stitches as you can, and you should see your hole disappearing! This is where it really helps to have had your stitches straight and close together…you’ll make a more compact weave (disclaimer: you really want to aim to match whatever your garment is — for example, a loosely knit sweater will obviously want to be matched with a looser darning weave).

4) Continue until you’ve completely patched your hole and then some. Pick up a couple threads from your garment and wrap your thread around your needle to knot it in place. You can always knot it on the inside too! I thought for this sock it would be more comfortable outside it.

This blog is an excerpt from a post that was originally written for and featured on Remake. Please support their work and get more resources from them here.